Optimizing Barrier Protection During a
Pandemic Event Caused by Influenza A

Global Strategic Plan No additional pandemics occurred during the 20th century or at the beginning of the 21st century, but public health experts anticipate that there will be more pandemics in the future. There is no way to accurately predict when the next pandemic will occur. A meeting held November 7-9, 2005 on avian influenza and human pandemic influenza was jointly convened by WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Organization for Animal Health, and the World Bank. They accessed the status of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in animals and reviewed the associated risks to human health during this meeting. Those attending agreed that the threat of a pandemic was of shared and major concern, and the potential consequences of such an occurrence directed discussions of human health matters with regard to two key sets of actions. These were aimed at: (1) preventing the emergence of a pandemic virus or, should this prove impossible, delaying the initial international spread of a pandemic, and (2) preparing all countries to cope with a pandemic in ways that reduce morbidity and mortality and also mitigate economic and social disruption. The WHO has a Global Strategic Plan pertaining to this type of event, which is presented in phases.43 The key goals for this plan are to: Reduce opportunities for human infection. Strengthen the early warning system. Contain or delay spread at the source. Reduce morbidity, mortality, and social disruption. Conduct research to guide response measures. Pandemic influenza can be controlled by rapid, appropriate public health action that includes surveillance, identification, and isolation of influenza cases, infection control, and intense contact tracing.44 In order to increase U.S. readiness against a pandemic strain of influenza, President Bush added pandemic influenza to the list of quarantinable events. This gives the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) the authority to take steps to prevent anyone with a new or reemerging influenza virus from infecting others by stopping them at our borders.44 Additional influenza vaccine manufacturers have entered the domestic market as a result of the united efforts of the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Vaccine Program Office (NVPO), and the Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness. HHS has realized that development of new influenza vaccine formulas and production techniques needs to be accelerated, which will allow a flexible surge capacity to produce the doses of vaccine that would be needed in a pandemic. HHS is aware that greater resources need to be devoted to vaccine research, development, and procurement, and they also desire to encourage routine seasonal use of influenza vaccine for all who would benefit from it. State and local health departments will execute the National Strategic Plan. Because of the potential impact that a pandemic event could have on the greater population and the need for multiple agencies to effectively respond, planning in advance for such an occurrence is imperative. The plan includes establishing command, control, and management procedures. State plans will communicate operational priorities and ensure that public health and healthcare decisions related to a pandemic event are carried out. The plan will be responsible for making major policy decisions, arranging coordination between needed and affected units, preserving a list of key partners, and activating any additional resources. The plan will include surveillance, vaccine delivery, antiviral, communication, and emergency response programs. Each organization should also have its own individual emergency and pandemic plan in place. This will alleviate panic and disorganization, save lives and provide people the proper information to keep them safe.45 In the past century, the world experienced three global outbreaks, or pandemics, of influenza. The latest appearance, the persistence of the emerging influenza virus in birds in Asia, and its infection of a limited number of humans, with a high mortality rate, has raised concern among scientists and public health professionals about the possibility of another pandemic.46,47

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