When indicators fail: SPAR, the invisible measure of pandemic preparedness

Effective pandemic preparedness.

Since the identification of 2009-H1N1 in the spring, the virus has caused human disease worldwide and has led to the first influenza pandemic in 4 decades. In North America, despite the unexpectedness of being the early center of the emerging epidemic, public health agencies, health care systems, and medical providers were able to make the immediate switch from preparedness to response, even af...

Influenza Pandemic Preparedness

n the list of potential bioterrorist agents, influenza would be classified as a category C agent (1). While previous influenza pandemics were naturally occurring events, an influenza pandemic could be started with an intentional release of a deliberately altered influenza strain. Even if a deliberately altered strain is not released, an influenza pandemic originating from natural origins will i...

When the Eyes Fail

Options for financing pandemic preparedness

Hospital preparedness for pandemic influenza.

ON MARCH 1, 2006, the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center convened a meeting of senior government officials, hospital leaders, clinicians, and public health officials on Hospital Preparedness for Pandemic Influenza in Baltimore, Maryland. A list of meeting participants is provided in Appendix 1. Individual comments were not for attribution so as to foster a fra...