1976 swine flu outbreak strain. On July 23, the President sends a letter urging Congress to take action on indemnification. In early August an outbreak of illness in Philadelphia is thought to be related to swine flu. It is found to be an atypical pneumonia thereafter called Legionnaires' disease. On August 6, President Ford holds a press conference urging Congress to take action on the indemnification legislation. Four days later, both Houses of Congress pass the legislation. Merrill becomes the first company to submit samples to the FDA's Bureau of Biologics for safety testing, which approves it on September 2. Merck makes the first
Pneumonia adults began in 1977, and in children in 2000, resulting in a similar decline. Due to the relatively low awareness of the disease, 12 November was declared as the annual World Pneumonia Day, a day for concerned citizens and policy makers to take action against the disease, in 2009. The global economic cost of community-acquired pneumonia has been estimated at $17 billion annually. Other estimates are considerably higher. In 2012 the estimated aggregate costs of treating pneumonia in the United States were $20 billion; the median cost of a single pneumonia-related hospitalization is over $15,000. According to data released by