Fergie's Tech Blog

H5N1 Update (sort of): U.K. ahead of U.S. in pandemic planning

Bob Brewin writes in Government Health IT:

The United Kingdom released its second influenza pandemic contingency plan since March, while the United States still works to develop and release its plan to deal with the consequences of a massive outbreak of influenza.

The United States also lags behind the European Union in the use of surveillance systems to provide early warning of outbreaks that could lead to a pandemic. About 13,000 sentinel physicians in 25 countries, covering a population of 464 million, provide weekly reports to the EU’s European Influenza Surveillance Scheme (EISS). In contrast, in the United States, which has a population of 295 million, only 1,000 doctors provide weekly reports on flu-like symptoms, such as fevers, coughs and sore throats, to the U.S. Influenza Sentinel Providers Surveillance Network.

According to the updated U.K. pandemic contingency plan released Oct. 19, the country will improve its surveillance systems by increasing coverage and frequency of reporting from general practitioners. To do so, it will establish a case-based field information management system that links epidemiological and laboratory data and use a central Web portal to improve information collation. The United Kingdom will also use a real-time system to monitor vaccine efficiency.

posted by Fergie @ 10/20/2005 06:09:00 PM