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Europe Warned on Flu Pandemic Planning
Title: Europe Warned on Flu Pandemic Planning
Date: Feb. 22, 2007
Author: Jack, Andrew
Institution: Financial Times
Bibliographic Entry: Jack, Andrew. “Europe Warned on Flu Pandemic Planning.” Financial Times, Feb. 22, 2007.
Electronic Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17274216/
Key Words: pandemic flu outbreak, H5N1, pandemic plan
Summary of Key Points, Issues, Conclusions:
According to the head of the European Union agency in charge of combating infectious disease, Europe needs at least two more years to be adequately prepared for a pandemic flu outbreak. Zsuzsanna Jakab, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, said it would actually take two to three years to be more prepared, even if the current political momentum could be maintained. Jakab warned that countries still needed to do more than improve their health systems to prepare for pandemics, states especially need to increase cooperation. Countries also need their written national plans operational for the local level; and ensure plans between and within countries work in a coordinated fashion.
Jakab stressed a need to strengthen collaboration with the European Union’s close neighbors, including Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Russia. Jakab also said the United Kingdom, France and Germany, as well as Slovenia and the Nordic countries, were better prepared, while EU accession states in central and eastern Europe were less prepared.
No European country has yet published a pandemic plan across all government departments. Most still focus on the health system, and only 14 have undertaken joint work with neighboring countries.
While EU and national leaders had helped to provide significant support in recent months, the challenge was to maintain those efforts when avian flu in Europe is less significant. Although only a few outbreaks of H5N1 in birds have taken place in recent months within the EU, specifically in the UK and Hungary, the infection continues to be endemic in animals in parts of Asia.
A recent survey of 25 EU states, as well as Iceland and Norway, analyzed pandemic planning, and found just 13 states had contingency plans for non-essential health services, and only 15 had conducted an exercise to test plans nationally in the health sector.
Jakab called for increased efforts to fight seasonal influenza, including greater use of flu vaccines, which would help prepare for a pandemic. Only 18 countries currently have a national pandemic vaccination strategy.
Name of Researcher: Alison Stevens
Institution: Integrative Center for Homeland Security, Texas A&M University
Date Posted: April 3, 2007