The Pandemic Flu Leadership Blog is a five-week long blog campaign to help Americans prepare for a coming pandemic. Each week, a question will be posted and guest bloggers will write about the relevant issue at hand. Comments are open and welcome from everyone.
The blog was launched on May 22 and already have several intelligent debate and comments going back and forth.
Week 1 of the HHS Pandemic Flu leadership blog tackled the need to prepare.

Why should we, as Americans, be concerned about personal preparedness for pandemic influenza? Why is it important that individuals commit to prepare? Why is this particularly …read more

Right now we are at alert level 3 for a pandemic – a World Health Oganization phase for “no or very limited human-to-human (H2H) transmission”.
And we’ve been at this alert since late 2005. Whew. That’s really good news.
The next alert level is “evidence of increased human-to-human transmission” which means the H5N1 has mutated to a form easily transmit between humans.
Avian Flu Diary wrote a perspective on how rapidly events and alerts could escalate if and when the H5N1 virus starts mutating.

Once large clusters are noticed, it may take some time to confirm that they are, indeed, the result of H2H …read more

Dr. Julie Gerbering, Director of the U.S. Center for Disease Control, made a rare press conference on something as simple as “using the masks and respirators during an influenza pandemic”.
At first read of the transcript, it’s strange that the CDC Director herself will make time for this. But then that speaks about how serious the agency is about getting people to prepare well in the event of a pandemic. Her points:
1. No mask or any facial protection alone it’s going to be enough to completely eliminate the risk of a pandemic.
2. If you’re sick, wear a mask to prevent droplets …read more

“Never before have we been as overdue but under-prepared for a recurring natural disaster as we are now for a pandemic.”
- Eric Hargan, US Acting Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Speaking in Sydney, Hargan warned Australia to prepare for an influenza disaster that can’t be prevented.

It’s like a popcorn effect – “a pop here, then there, then several, and soon eruptions all over”.

Many experts believe that another influenza epidemic is imminent, and no nation will be spared. It’s along this line of thinking that has caused Thailand to protect itself by setting up a flu-vaccine production plant. Thailand …read more

A war game, if you may. That’s how networks called the 48-hour drill that the US Center of Disease Control conducted this week to test the responses of US government agencies.
In a classic outbreak scenario, the script called for a student infected with a new strain of H5N1 returns from Indonesia and dies, but not before infecting others, including members of a swimming team.
By end of day One, 12 people contracted the disease in four states, and 25 percent die.
By Day Two, the cases double to 25 and the CDC is forced to consider severe control measures – closing schools, …read more

The World Health Organization calculated that roughly 60 million doses of bird flu vaccines will be needed by developing countries to protect 1% of their populations.

Today, WHO announced that it just might help build that needed stockpile.

”The (Indonesian) government’s campaign against bird flu does not reach the people at the grassroots level,” complains a parent from West Java.
Because of this common sentiment, a group of Indonesian moms decided to take matters in their own hands by organizing a talk show on the bird flu. Some of the topcs addressed were basic information about the nature of H5N1, how families should treat sick of dying poultry and what to do if they do get flu-like symptoms. The audience was a mixture of association members, school drivers, students and teachers. After showing a flm titled ‘Race against the …read more

The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention awarded contracts worth $11.4 million to four biotech companies to develop tests that detect influenza more rapidly.
Currently, tests take anywhere from 24 hours to a week to process a test in the US (counting delivery of samples to lab). The CDC wants a “good way to quickly and easily distinguish at a patient’s bedside whether they suffer from H5N1 or a more common type of influenza,” said Director Julie Gerberding said in a prepared statement.
Cepheid (California) received $2.4 million; IQuum Inc. (Massachusetts) got $3.8 million; Meso Scale Diagnostics (Maryland) was awarded $706,241; …read more

John Bowen of Hometown Security has summarized two reports giving updates on pandemic planning efforts. One is more optimistic than the other, but both reports stress that there much to do.
The first report was written by the Financial Services Roundtable, which represents 100 of the largest integrated financial services companies providing banking, insurance, investment products and services to the American consumer. From the FSR:

No one is ready if the pandemic occurs within the next several years.

Not only will it take six months after the outbreak of a pandemic to produce sufficient vaccine, this isn’t scheduled to be possible for another …read more

Here’s a promising research on giving H5N1 avian flu vaccine prior to an outbreak. Priming may boost the immune response so that only a booster shot is required when a pandemic occurs.
Research conducted by the University of Rochester, New York showed that people who were vaccinated with an H5N1 vaccine in 1998 had a strong immune response when they were given a booster shot in 2006, even though the strain for the booster shot was from a different clade than the original vaccine. Study participants who were not previously exposed to the H5N1 did not have increased antibody levels.
“These preliminary …read more