Feds release implementation plan for pandemic flu

May 2006

White House officials released an updated report early this month that details how government and local officials plan to respond in the event a pandemic influenza occurs in the United States.

In the White House’s initial report, National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza, officials stated that pandemic influenza activities lie in five key areas: surveillance, vaccine development and production, antiviral stockpiling, research and public health preparedness.

The plan also called for more stringent infection control strategies to decrease global and community spread of infection, but health officials criticized that initial report, saying they needed further guidance on actually implementing those measures.

Since that report was released, Congress appropriated $3.8 billion to develop vaccines and stockpile antivirals, and with the release of the second report, Implementation Plan for the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza, White House officials detailed how they plan to allocate those funds.

The plan states that the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) will collaborate with private industry to accelerate development, evaluation and licensure of U.S.- based production of new antivirals and other technologies.

The plan also calls on the “collective action of individuals, families, business, schools, and state and local governments. If everyone participates in this planning, we can do much to reduce the spread of the virus and limit its impact on the functioning of our communities,” wrote Fran Townsend, assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, on the White House’s Web site.

In the report, health officials estimate that one-third of the population could become infected if a pandemic occurred in the United States. They said more access to vaccines and drugs are needed for these people. Companies may be able to make 900 million doses of a pandemic influenza vaccine, but there are 6 billion people in the world, according to Keiji Fukuda, MD, acting director of the WHO global immunization program, who spoke on the subject at a meeting in March.

On the same day the White House released its implementation plan, officials noted a new action group that has been established to coordinate “preparedness and response to avian influenza and the threat of a global human influenza pandemic.” The action group will report to Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky, designated by the Secretary as the State Department’s interagency coordinator on pandemic influenza. The action group will handle communication, surveillance, detection, and response and containment.

According to a press statement, the Avian Influenza Action Group will work in close collaboration with the DHHS, Homeland Security, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

About pandemic flu

A pandemic can happen if different influenza strains swap genetic information and mutate into a new strain that people have no immunity against, and many health officials believe the world is overdue for a pandemic.

The prime suspect? Avian influenza, Benjamin Schwartz, MD, of the National Vaccine Program Office at the DHHS said at the National Vaccine Advisory Committee meeting in October. Avian influenza has been found in birds throughout Europe, and has also spread to Africa, Russia and the Ukraine.

Three influenza pandemics occurred during the 20th century. The most recent influenza pandemic occurred in 1968 with the Hong Kong Flu outbreak, which resulted in nearly 34,000 deaths in the United States.

In 1957, the Asian flu pandemic resulted in about 70,000 deaths. The most deadly influenza pandemic outbreak was the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which caused illness in roughly 20% to 40% of the world’s population and more than 50 million deaths worldwide. Between September 1918 and April 1919, approximately 675,000 deaths from the Spanish flu occurred in the United States alone.