BACKGROUND During the 2009/A/H1N1 pandemic, the main burden of the patient management fell on primary care physicians (PCPs), and they were the principal implementers of pandemic policies. Broad involvement of PCPs in the pandemic response offered an excellent opportunity to investigate the challenges that they encountered. OBJECTIVE To examine challenges faced by PCPs as they implemented pan...

In April 2009, a new influenza A virus, pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza, was identified in Mexico and the United States of America. The NSW response was co-ordinated by the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre through an incident control structure that included planning, operations and logistics teams with designated roles and responsibilities for the public health response. The emphasis of...

BACKGROUND Prior experience and the persisting threat of influenza pandemic indicate the need for global and local preparedness and public health response capacity. The pandemic of 2009 highlighted the importance of such planning and the value of prior efforts at all levels. Our review of the public health response to this pandemic in Pune, India, considers the challenges of integrating global ...

Background: Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) is an autoimmune disease that may occur after infections. As Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) may bring about GBS, it is important to assess the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on this disease Objectives: This study aimed to compare the distribution and characteristics of GBS during and before the COVID-19 pandemic in an academic referral hospital i...

In Response: We agree with Doshi (1) that in our study, reported in Public Response to Community Mitigation Measures for Pandemic Infl uenza (2), we purposely asked respondents to imagine a “severe outbreak” of “a new type of fl u,” and that possible scenario was vastly different from ordinary fl u seasons. Although previous pandemics have varied in their severity (3) and their concomitant illn...

BACKGROUND Emergency Medical Services workers' willingness to report to duty in an influenza pandemic is essential to healthcare system surge amidst a global threat. Application of Witte's Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) has shown utility for revealing influences of perceived threat and efficacy on non-EMS public health providers' willingness to respond in an influenza pandemic. We thus ...

BACKGROUND Effectiveness of pandemic plans and community compliance was extensively researched following the H1N1 pandemic. This systematic review examined community response studies to determine whether behavioural responses to the pandemic were related to level of knowledge about the pandemic, perceived severity of the pandemic and level of concern about the pandemic. METHODS Literature dat...

Background: A coordinated disaster response needs a well-organized structure and a locally adapted framework. In light of this, the COVID-19 pandemic offered an opportunity to renovate the response structure, which exhibited deficiencies during the pandemic. Iran shares the experience of an integrated response structure named the Reform Incidents Command System. It includes an integrated approa...

The complexities of planning for and responding to the emergence of novel influenza viruses emphasize the need for systematic frameworks to describe the progression of the event; weigh the risk of emergence and potential public health impact; evaluate transmissibility, antiviral resistance, and severity; and make decisions about interventions. On the basis of experience from recent influenza re...

Pandemic influenza is one of a small number of infectious diseases that pose a significant global threat. Pandemic preparedness has accelerated around the world in recent years in response to the perceived increased risk of a pandemic developing following the emergence of H5N1 avian influenza in domestic poultry flocks in Asia, Africa and Europe. There is a hierarchy of pandemic plans - interna...