Southeast Asia will likely be the epicenter of the next influenza pandemic. To determine whether health system resources in Thailand are sufficient to contain an emerging pandemic, we mapped health system resources in 76 provinces. We used 3 prepandemic scenarios of clustered cases and determined resource needs, availability, and gaps. We extended this analysis to a scenario of a modest pandemi...

Two strains of Vibrio cholerae are currently significant in cholera: a remnant from the sixth pandemic (1899-1923) still present in South Asia and the seventh pandemic strain which emerged in 1961. The 1990s were marked by spread of the seventh pandemic to South America in 1991 and appearance of an O139 form of the seventh pandemic strain in 1992 (or possibly 1991), which in 1993 predominated i...

Better preparedness for an influenza pandemic mitigates its impact. Many countries have started developing and implementing national influenza pandemic preparedness plans. However, the level of preparedness varies among countries. Developing countries encounter unique and difficult issues and challenges in preparing for a pandemic. Deaths attributable to an influenza pandemic could be substanti...

Framing has previously been studied in the field of pandemic preparedness and global health governance and influenza pandemics have usually been framed in terms of security and evidence-based medicine on a global scale. This paper is based on the pandemic preparedness plans, published after 2009, from eight European countries. We study how pandemic preparedness is framed and how pandemic influe...

The emergence of the H7N9 virus in China is another reminder of the threat of a global influenza pandemic. Many believe we could confront a pandemic by expanding our capacity to provide timely supplies of affordable pandemic vaccines and antiviral agents. Experience in 2009 demonstrated that this cannot and will not be done. Consequently, physicians may have little more to offer their patients ...

Since emergence of the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus in April 2009, three influenza A viruses-seasonal (H3N2), seasonal (H1N1), and pandemic (H1N1) 2009-have circulated in humans. Genetic reassortment between these viruses could result in enhanced pathogenicity. We compared 4 reassortant viruses with favorable in vitro replication properties with the wild-type pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus with respe...

Procedures undertaken by NSW Health in the laboratory response to pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza were reviewed to assist planning for a future infectious disease emergency. Laboratory plans developed prior to the pandemic sought rapid detection of pandemic virus in the early phases of the pandemic response until demonstration of widespread community transmission, followed then by limited testin...

We compared confirmed pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza and seasonal influenza diagnosed in Western Australia during the 2009 influenza season. From 3,178 eligible reports, 984 pandemic and 356 seasonal influenza patients were selected; 871 (88.5%) and 288 (80.9%) were interviewed, respectively. Patients in both groups reported a median of 6 of 11 symptoms; the difference between groups in the pro...

Pandemics are the most dramatic presentation of influenza. Three have occurred in the twentieth century: the 1918 H1N1 pandemic, the 1957 H2N2 pandemic, and the 1968 H3N2 pandemic. The tools of molecular epidemiology have been applied in an attempt to determine the origin of pandemic viruses and to understand what made them such successful pathogens. An excellent example of this avenue of resea...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the policies on 2009 influenza pandemic in Korea at the end of first wave. METHODS The main policies and the estimation of these were described according to the progress of 2009 influenza pandemic. RESULTS The public health measures for containment were estimated to be successful in the early stage. The preparedness of antiviral agents and vaccines before the pandemic...