Working Group on Pandemic Influenza Preparedness: joint statement in response to Department of Health and Human Services Pandemic Influenza Plan.

Received 18 November 2005; accepted 18 November 2005; electronically published 29 November 2005 Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to saving lives by protecting the health of every community and working to make disease prevention a national priority. Reprints or correspondence: Dr. Jeffrey Levi, Trust for America’s Health, 1707 H St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20006 ([email protected]). Clinical Infectious Diseases 2006; 42:92–4 2005 by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. 1058-4838/2006/4201-0014$15.00 On 1 November 2005, President Bush released the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza [1], which outlines how the United States intends to prepare for, detect, and respond to an influenza pandemic. Congress was asked to fund the plan by appropriating $7.1 billion, the bulk of which would go to the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to stockpile vaccines and antiviral drugs, to accelerate the development of new vaccine technologies, and to improve disease surveillance and the nation’s public health infrastructure and communications. The following day, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt released the DHHS Pandemic Influenza Plan [2], which details how the nation’s health care and public health systems should prepare for and respond to an influenza pandemic. The plan addresses a broad range of preparedness and response issues, including disease surveillance and containment; stockpiling and distribution of antivirals and vaccines; collaboration between federal, state, and local entities; and public education. The Working Group on Pandemic Influenza Preparedness, which consists of a number of professional societies and organizations, wrote the following letter to Congress in response to these plans. This letter was previously published on the Internet [3]. —Jeffrey Levi