World Health Officials Shape Pandemic Preparedness Strategy

Health experts meet in Geneva to devise plan for rapid response

The World Health Organization (WHO) is bringing together health experts to hammer out a plan of action in case their nightmare comes true - a form of highly virulent pandemic influenza begins to ripple through the human population.

A highly pathogenic form of avian influenza has stricken wild and domestic birds in more than 30 nations. Health experts have concluded that this virus - H5N1 - might mutate into a form of flu that could be easily passed among humans, setting off a pandemic with the potential to kill millions worldwide.

WHO convenes experts in epidemiology, virology, public health and other fields March 6-9 in Geneva to refine details of a rapid response plan that has been in development for some months as H5N1 has appeared in increasing numbers of nations, and human cases of the diseases have climbed. In the more than two years since this animal epidemic began in Asia, more than 170 humans have been infected with this animal disease and 94 have died.

A draft plan previously unveiled by WHO said its objective is to "develop, through a coordinated international approach, the capacity to rapidly detect, assess, respond to and, if possible, contain, the earliest emergence of a pandemic virus."

U.S. public health agencies have been engaged intently with international animal and human health agencies in working to raise awareness about the threat of a pandemic. The United States is also one of the leading donors to international preparedness, contributing $334 million since 2005 to assist other nations in their efforts to improve their capability to detect and contain disease in animal populations before it can move into human populations.

Speaking to a congressional committee March 2, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Julie Gerberding, emphasized her agency's commitment to assist other nations in trying to prevent a full-blown pandemic growing out of the localized appearance of disease.

"We will do everything we can to be there and try to quench the first outbreak," Gerberding told a U.S. House Appropriations subcommittee.

The task is a daunting one, however. The WHO's draft rapid response protocol says the global health community is setting an unprecedented goal.

"Containment of a potential pandemic has never been attempted; the world has never before received an advance warning that a pandemic may be imminent," according to the protocol. "The practical and logistics challenges are formidable and success is not assured."

More information is available from the Rapid Response protocol on the WHO Web site and the U.S. Pandemic Flu Web site.

Source: U.S. Department of State

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