We are now facing the first flu pandemic in the age of the internet: on-line advice is proliferating almost as rapidly as the virus itself. With so much instantly available and constantly updated information available to anyone with internet access, is there still a need for an old-fashioned book?

RCPCH President Professor Terence Stephenson has produced, with remarkable alacrity, a book aimed at worried parents. It carries his personal authority but is not formally endorsed either by the College or by any NHS body. It is aimed specifically at a UK readership, but an international version will be published in the near future.

The …