Unprepared for a Flu Pandemic

If a much-feared pandemic of avian influenza starts sweeping through the world’s population anytime soon, neither the United States nor international health authorities will be prepared to cope with it. There is not enough vaccine or antiviral medicine available to protect more than a handful of people, and no industrial capacity to produce a lot more of these medicines quickly.

And they’re right. We are horribly unprepared locally, nationally and throughout the world. Part of the issue is how we communicate the need. This article, written for WHO, tries to get at how to talk to folks to address the issues.

Public health officials have a pandemic-size communication problem. Experts believe a deadly influenza pandemic is quite likely to be launched by the H5N1 avian virus that has killed millions of birds and dozens of people in Asia. They are more anxious than they have been in decades. But infectious diseases are unpredictable. H5N1 could disappear–as swine flu did in 1976–and “The Great Pandemic of 2___” could arise from a strain that doesn’t even exist yet. Even if H5N1 does cause a human pandemic, it might weaken and produce only mild disease. So it’s hard for officials to know how aggressively to sound the alarm. They don’t want to be accused of needlessly frightening the public. They also don’t want to be accused–later–of leaving the public underprepared for a disaster.

Communication wouldn’t be such a problem if it were possible to get ready for the next pandemic without talking to the public. It isn’t. Health authorities want the public to be aware of this grave threat for three fundamental reasons: so people will prepare themselves emotionally and logistically; so people will help their schools, businesses, hospitals, and other organizations prepare; and so people will support the preparedness efforts of their governments. And there’s a fourth reason: If and when a pandemic begins, people who have had time to get used to the idea are likelier to understand their risks, follow official advice, and take an active role in protecting themselves.

The Flu Wiki is an attempt to do just that. It’s still in its infancy and won’t be ‘The Answer’. But it’s a way to address, as fairly as possible, the questions we all will have, and to share information we all will need. It has had visitors from every time zone. We are now reviewing the languages we have information in (starting with Spanish, although others are needed). (See graphics after the break.) And the principles that Sandman and Lanard (his MD wife) put down are exactly the principles we and others (politicians, health officials, etc) need to follow.

With luck, we’ll have time to plan and prepare. But this does not fall to public health officials alone. Everyone has things they can do, individually and in their community. Stop by and contribute to the Flu Wiki. See what you can do for yourself, and your community. This is a non-partisan issue that affects us all.