National Strategy For Pandemic Influenza

This Implementation Plan for the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza clarifies the roles and responsibilities of governmental and non-governmental entities, including Federal, State, local, and tribal authorities and regional, national, and international stakeholders, and provides preparedness guidance for all segments of society.

This Implementation Plan clarifies the roles and responsibilities of governmental and non-governmental entities, including Federal, State, local, and tribal authorities and regional, national, and international stakeholders, and provides preparedness guidance for all segments of society.--Preface.

This guidance is an update of WHO global influenza preparedness plan: the role of WHO and recommendations for national measures before and during pandemics, published March 2005 (WHO/CDS/CSR/GIP/2005.5).

This report presents the Homeland Security Council's comprehensive approach to addressing the threat of pandemic influenza. The strategy outlines how our government is preparing for, & how they will detect & respond to, a potential pandemic. It describes more than 300 critical actions, many of which have already been initiated, to address the threat of pandemic influenza. Contents: the pandemic threat; U.S. government planning for a pandemic; federal government response to a pandemic; international efforts; transportation & borders; protecting human health; protecting animal health; law enforcement, public safety, & security; institutions: protecting personnel & ensuring continuity of operations. Appendices.

Influenza viruses have threatened the health of animal and human populations for centuries. Their diversity and propensity for mutation have thwarted our efforts to develop both a universal vaccine and highly effective antiviral drugs. A pandemic occurs when a novel strain of influenza virus emerges that has the ability to infect and be passed between humans. Because humans have little immunity to the new virus, a worldwide epidemic, or pandemic, can ensue. Three human influenza pandemics occurred in the 20th century, each resulting in illness in approximately 30 percent of the world population and death in 0.2 percent to 2 percent of those infected. Using this historical information and current models of disease transmission, it is projected that a modern pandemic could lead to the deaths of 200,000 to 2 million people in the United States alone. The animal population serves as a reservoir for new influenza viruses. Scientists believe that avian, or bird, viruses played a role in the last three pandemics. The current concern for a pandemic arises from an unprecedented outbreak of H5N1 influenza in birds that began in 1997 and has spread across bird populations in Asia, Europe, and Africa. The virus has shown the ability to infect multiple species, including long-range migratory birds, pigs, cats, and humans. It is impossible to predict whether the H5N1 virus will lead to a pandemic, but history suggests that if it does not, another novel influenza virus will emerge at some point in the future and threaten an unprotected human population. The economic and societal disruption of an influenza pandemic could be significant. Absenteeism across multiple sectors related to personal illness, illness in family members, fear of contagion, or public health measures to limit contact with others could threaten the functioning of critical infrastructure, the movement of goods and services, and operation of institutions such as schools and universities.

Public health officials and organizations around the world remain on high alert because of increasing concerns about the prospect of an influenza pandemic, which many experts believe to be inevitable. Moreover, recent problems with the availability and strain-specificity of vaccine for annual flu epidemics in some countries and the rise of pandemic strains of avian flu in disparate geographic regions have alarmed experts about the world's ability to prevent or contain a human pandemic. The workshop summary, The Threat of Pandemic Influenza: Are We Ready? addresses these urgent concerns. The report describes what steps the United States and other countries have taken thus far to prepare for the next outbreak of "killer flu." It also looks at gaps in readiness, including hospitals' inability to absorb a surge of patients and many nations' incapacity to monitor and detect flu outbreaks. The report points to the need for international agreements to share flu vaccine and antiviral stockpiles to ensure that the 88 percent of nations that cannot manufacture or stockpile these products have access to them. It chronicles the toll of the H5N1 strain of avian flu currently circulating among poultry in many parts of Asia, which now accounts for the culling of millions of birds and the death of at least 50 persons. And it compares the costs of preparations with the costs of illness and death that could arise during an outbreak.

The National Strategy To Safeguard Against The Danger Of Pandemic Influenza (White House) outlines the coordinated federal government efforts to prevent and prepare for avian and pandemic flu. President Bush directed all relevant federal departments and agencies to take steps to address the threat of avian and pandemic flu. Drawing on the combined efforts of government officials and the public health, medical, veterinary, and law enforcement communities, as well as the private sector, this strategy is designed to meet three critical goals: detecting human or animal outbreaks that occur anywhere in the world; protecting the American people by stockpiling vaccines and antiviral drugs while improving the capacity to produce new vaccines; and preparing to respond at the federal, state, and local levels in the event an avian or pandemic influenza reaches the United States.