INTRODUCTION: Influenza virus has been the cause of human fatalities for many years. In the last 300 years about 10 influenza pandemics have been reported. During 1918 and-1919, this pandemic caused 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide which was a higher rate compared to the number of deaths during the two other pandemics in 1957 and 1968 (1). Similar to the pandemic of 1918, high morbidity and mortality rate has been reported in the pandemics occurring in the years 1830 and 1832 (2)…