‘Outbreak’ puts the life cycle of an epidemic on display

A new Smithsonian exhibit highlights how infectious diseases shape our world

SOCIAL EPIDEMIC  In a new Smithsonian exhibit, activist signs and buttons from the AIDS epidemic highlight some of the social consequences of infectious disease outbreaks.

James Di Loreto and Lucia RM Martino/Smithsonian Institution

In 1918, a pandemic of Spanish flu killed as much as 5 percent of the world’s population.