Pandemic Influenza – Be Aware and Be Prepared

We have seen in recent years how health issues can affect our Nation. Events like the anthrax attacks and the hurricanes have tested our preparedness and response capabilities. Now, on the horizon, we face a new public health challenge -- a challenge that involves protecting, promoting, and advancing the health and safety of the Nation, and calls for every U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps officer to be aware and be prepared.

Avian influenza is a growing global concern. The H5N1 subtype is slowly spreading across Asia and Europe and it may be just a matter of time before it reaches the United States. In mid-April the virus moved further west when a dead swan tested positive for avian influenza in Scotland ( http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/conditions/04/07/swan.flu.britain/index.html). Although now believed to have been a migratory bird, this report reiterates the fact that infected birds can travel and pose harm to new countries. According to the World Health Organization, since first identified in 1997, avian influenza has killed more then 100 humans (http://www.who.int/csr/disease/influenza/pandemic10things/en/index.html). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that more than 180 human cases have been confirmed worldwide.

Since avian influenza is a rather new subtype it has the potential to be contagious human to human, thus creating a human influenza with the possibility of creating a pandemic. There is currently no vaccine available to immunize or treat in the event of infection.

The United States has prepared for pandemic influenza, regardless of the strain from which it develops. In the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Pandemic Influenza Plan (http://www.hhs.gov/pandemicflu/plan/) it states, “Medical response assets internal to HHS (e.g., the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps) and through ESF #8 supporting organizations (e.g., the Department of Homeland Security’s National Disaster Medical System) may be deployed along with assets from the Strategic National Stockpile.”

If a pandemic of influenza affects this country it will flood our healthcare system with patients, those who are ill and those who suspect illness. Our healthcare workers will also become ill, reducing the number of staff available. The importance of public planning cannot be stressed enough through the Federal, State, and local governments. Secretary Michael Leavitt has traveled to share the HHS plan with other nations’ public health authorities and is currently conducting Pandemic Flu Summits with States and territories across the Nation to address avian influenza and the prevention of a pandemic.

With this charge, the entire Corps must be ready to respond if our Nation is threatened with an epidemic. Through your daily work, within your Agencies whether within or outside of HHS, many of you are already working daily to prevent or address such an epidemic. All of us should take some time to read the references below and become knowledgeable on the subject.

By preventative health care, environmental services, industry inspections, laboratory monitoring, international partnerships, epidemiological tracking, and pharmaceutical production we are moving to prevent and prepare if the threat of avian influenza begins to greatly affect the United States or other foreign countries. Continue your great work in improving our Nation’s health and stand prepared to respond should duty call.

To find more information, please visit the following links: Secretary Leavitt’s Pandemic Planning Update - http://www.hhs.gov/panflu20060313.pdf The World Health Organization - http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/en/ HHS Pandemic and Avian Influenza Home Page - http://pandemicflu.gov/

VADM Richard H. Carmona Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service

 

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