Giuseppe
Emeritus
(1) [AVIAN INFLUENZA, POULTRY, NIGERIA, ECDC, UPDATES, PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS] EUROPEAN CENTRE OF DISEASES PREVENTION AND CONTROL (ECDC), INFLUENZA NEWS, EXCERPTS
(1a) AVIAN INFLUENZA
There are fluctuating reports in the media of influenza A(H5N1) and other avian influenza infections in birds and humans. ECDC monitors these carefully as part of its epidemic intelligence work. However without laboratory confirmation ECDC only rarely mentions these media reports in this output.
(1b) AVIAN INFLUENZA ? ANIMAL HEALTH ?NIGERIA
25th July 2008
The OIE has reported 2 poultry outbreaks of A(H5N1) infection in Nigeria. One outbreak was detected in the region of Katsina and involves a small backyard flock.
The second outbreak was detected in the region of Kano and affects a larger commercial backyard poultry flock. According to the OIE report, investigations are ongoing and control measure have been implemented.
(1c) AVIAN INFLUENZA ? HUMAN HEALTH
There are no new human cases of avian influenza A(H5N1) reported by WHO since 19th June 2008
(1d) ECDC Web-Pages for European Innovations and Developments in Pandemic Preparedness
ECDC has been collecting examples of good practice and innovations since last September when this was a major feature of the Fourth Joint European Pandemic Preparedness Workshop organised by the European Commission with ECDC and WHO European Region.
A special report was produced from that meeting however more innovations have been appearing continuously and ECDC has now organised a series of pages on its web-site where these are collected together.
These are entitled Pandemic Influenza Preparedness ? Innovations and Good Practice . The Innovations are organised into ten categories which are:
(1e) P.H. PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS In Schools
The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DfES)(http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/) in the UK has produced a range of guidance (http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/humanflupandemic) documents on pandemic preparedness in schools as part of the Government?s efforts to encourage pandemic planning across all sectors.
These include a guidance targeted to Schools and Children?s Services on Planning for a Human Influenza Pandemic.
The general aim of the guidance is to encourage and support schools and children?s services in planning for a human influenza pandemic as part of their normal planning for responding to any emergency (http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/management/atoz/e/emergencyplanning/).
It recommends that schools and childcare providers should plan both for operating during a pandemic and for the possible closure to children of schools and childcare services if the Government proposes such closure for child welfare reasons.
The guidance sets out the processes that we would be used to get information to schools and childcare providers if there is an advice that schools should close to children. Read the full guidance (http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/docbank/index.cfm?id=9942).
ECDC comment (30/07/2008):
This initiative undertaken in the UK goes in the right direction of supporting multisectorial preparedness at National level. Apart from the health sector, the functioning of many other sectors of the society are likely to affected during an Influenza pandemic.
Therefore coordinated multisectorial planning can be a key development to increase general pandemic preparedness.
Promoting a more integrated planning and preparation across governments and sectors was one of the main recommendations in the ECDC report (http://www.ecdc.europa.eu/Health_topics/Pandemic_Influenza/updates1.html) on the level of pandemic preparedness in the European Union and EEA published at the end of 2007.
As mentioned above examples of best practices and innovations (http://www.ecdc.europa.eu/Health_topics/Pandemic_Influenza/innovations.html) in this area within the EU/EEA countries have been also recently published in the ECDC website.
(1f) The Netherlands publishes its joint pandemic preparedness self assessment report
Last week the Netherlands authorities published the report of the pandemic preparedness self-assessment that was undertaken by a joint team led by ECDC and the Dutch with input from WHO European Region who were also on the visit.
The report is summarised (in Dutch) on the Ministry of Health web-site (http://www.minvws.nl/kamerstukken/pg/2008/aanbieding-rapport-ecdc-joint-self-assessment-voorbereiding-pandemie.asp?rss).
The full report is also available in English and in Dutch as a pdf available thou the above link. On pages 4 to 8 the report makes a series of detailed recommendations to the authorities and identifies areas where ECDC and WHO should assist.
The report also highlights 21 areas (pages 13-14) where the Netherlands approach to influenza is strong nine of which are deserving of being drawn to the attention of other European Countries.
(1g) Birdflu2008: Avian Influenza and Human Health, Oxford, UK. 10-11 September 2008
The first annual Oxford avian influenza conference, BirdFlu2008, will address most aspects of basic and applied research on avian influenza viruses and their potential health and socio-economic impact on humans.
Find more information on the conference. http://www.libpubmedia.co.uk/Conferences/BirdFlu2008/Home.htm
(1h) 3rd ESWI European Influenza Conference, Vilamoura, Portugal. 14-17 September 2008.
The European Scientific Working group on Influenza (EWSI) - an independent group of European scientists promoting the study of influenza ? will hold its third European Influenza Conference in the autumn of 2008.
Find more information on the conference. http://www.eswiconference.org/
(1i) International Ministerial Conference on Avian and Pandemic Influenza, Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. 24-26 October 2008.
This meeting organised by the Government of Egypt is the sixth in a series of high level meetings that began in Washington in October 2005, followed by Beijing (January 2006), Vienna (June 2006) Bamako (December 2006) and Delhi (November 2007). The Delhi meeting established a Road Map for countries to progress AI prevention and pandemic planning during 2008.
The Ministerial meeting in Egypt is supported by many bodies including the European Union, United Nations, WHO, United States international aid (USAID), the World Bank, the two major global animal health organisations (OIE & FAO) and the African Union.
The focus is to assess the current epidemiological situation and progress since Delhi, and review the effectiveness of the strategies applied and remap the way forward in global avian and pandemic flu preparedness and response for 2009. A group from the UN Development programme (UNDP) is in the process of preparing a report for the meeting. See the last report.
Find also more information on the conference website. http://www.imcapi2008.gov.eg/
(1j) International symposium on viral respiratory disease surveillance. Seville, Spain 25-27th March 2009. International Society for Influenza and other Respiratory Virus Disease (ISIRV)
Find more information on the conference. http://www.isirv.org/
-
--------
(1a) AVIAN INFLUENZA
There are fluctuating reports in the media of influenza A(H5N1) and other avian influenza infections in birds and humans. ECDC monitors these carefully as part of its epidemic intelligence work. However without laboratory confirmation ECDC only rarely mentions these media reports in this output.
(1b) AVIAN INFLUENZA ? ANIMAL HEALTH ?NIGERIA
25th July 2008
The OIE has reported 2 poultry outbreaks of A(H5N1) infection in Nigeria. One outbreak was detected in the region of Katsina and involves a small backyard flock.
The second outbreak was detected in the region of Kano and affects a larger commercial backyard poultry flock. According to the OIE report, investigations are ongoing and control measure have been implemented.
(1c) AVIAN INFLUENZA ? HUMAN HEALTH
There are no new human cases of avian influenza A(H5N1) reported by WHO since 19th June 2008
(1d) ECDC Web-Pages for European Innovations and Developments in Pandemic Preparedness
ECDC has been collecting examples of good practice and innovations since last September when this was a major feature of the Fourth Joint European Pandemic Preparedness Workshop organised by the European Commission with ECDC and WHO European Region.
A special report was produced from that meeting however more innovations have been appearing continuously and ECDC has now organised a series of pages on its web-site where these are collected together.
These are entitled Pandemic Influenza Preparedness ? Innovations and Good Practice . The Innovations are organised into ten categories which are:
- Planning, coordination and maintaining essential services (non-health) (http://ecdc.europa.eu/Health_topics/Pandemic_Influenza/in_planning.html)
- Business continuity planning (http://ecdc.europa.eu/Health_topics/Pandemic_Influenza/in_business.html)
- Exercises (http://ecdc.europa.eu/Health_topics/Pandemic_Influenza/in_exercise.html)
- Ethical issues (http://ecdc.europa.eu/Health_topics/Pandemic_Influenza/in_ethical.html)
- Surveillance situation monitoring and assessment in a pandemic (http://ecdc.europa.eu/Health_topics/Pandemic_Influenza/in_surveillance.html)
- Communication (http://ecdc.europa.eu/Health_topics/Pandemic_Influenza/in_comm.html)
- Health services in a pandemic (http://ecdc.europa.eu/Health_topics/Pandemic_Influenza/in_health.html)
- Pandemic vaccines, antivirals and other consumables (http://ecdc.europa.eu/Health_topics/Pandemic_Influenza/in_pan_vacc.html)
- Interoperability between countries (http://ecdc.europa.eu/Health_topics/Pandemic_Influenza/in_inop.html)
- Local preparedness (http://ecdc.europa.eu/Health_topics/Pandemic_Influenza/in_local.html)
(1e) P.H. PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS In Schools
The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DfES)(http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/) in the UK has produced a range of guidance (http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/humanflupandemic) documents on pandemic preparedness in schools as part of the Government?s efforts to encourage pandemic planning across all sectors.
These include a guidance targeted to Schools and Children?s Services on Planning for a Human Influenza Pandemic.
The general aim of the guidance is to encourage and support schools and children?s services in planning for a human influenza pandemic as part of their normal planning for responding to any emergency (http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/management/atoz/e/emergencyplanning/).
It recommends that schools and childcare providers should plan both for operating during a pandemic and for the possible closure to children of schools and childcare services if the Government proposes such closure for child welfare reasons.
The guidance sets out the processes that we would be used to get information to schools and childcare providers if there is an advice that schools should close to children. Read the full guidance (http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/docbank/index.cfm?id=9942).
ECDC comment (30/07/2008):
This initiative undertaken in the UK goes in the right direction of supporting multisectorial preparedness at National level. Apart from the health sector, the functioning of many other sectors of the society are likely to affected during an Influenza pandemic.
Therefore coordinated multisectorial planning can be a key development to increase general pandemic preparedness.
Promoting a more integrated planning and preparation across governments and sectors was one of the main recommendations in the ECDC report (http://www.ecdc.europa.eu/Health_topics/Pandemic_Influenza/updates1.html) on the level of pandemic preparedness in the European Union and EEA published at the end of 2007.
As mentioned above examples of best practices and innovations (http://www.ecdc.europa.eu/Health_topics/Pandemic_Influenza/innovations.html) in this area within the EU/EEA countries have been also recently published in the ECDC website.
(1f) The Netherlands publishes its joint pandemic preparedness self assessment report
Last week the Netherlands authorities published the report of the pandemic preparedness self-assessment that was undertaken by a joint team led by ECDC and the Dutch with input from WHO European Region who were also on the visit.
The report is summarised (in Dutch) on the Ministry of Health web-site (http://www.minvws.nl/kamerstukken/pg/2008/aanbieding-rapport-ecdc-joint-self-assessment-voorbereiding-pandemie.asp?rss).
The full report is also available in English and in Dutch as a pdf available thou the above link. On pages 4 to 8 the report makes a series of detailed recommendations to the authorities and identifies areas where ECDC and WHO should assist.
The report also highlights 21 areas (pages 13-14) where the Netherlands approach to influenza is strong nine of which are deserving of being drawn to the attention of other European Countries.
(1g) Birdflu2008: Avian Influenza and Human Health, Oxford, UK. 10-11 September 2008
The first annual Oxford avian influenza conference, BirdFlu2008, will address most aspects of basic and applied research on avian influenza viruses and their potential health and socio-economic impact on humans.
Find more information on the conference. http://www.libpubmedia.co.uk/Conferences/BirdFlu2008/Home.htm
(1h) 3rd ESWI European Influenza Conference, Vilamoura, Portugal. 14-17 September 2008.
The European Scientific Working group on Influenza (EWSI) - an independent group of European scientists promoting the study of influenza ? will hold its third European Influenza Conference in the autumn of 2008.
Find more information on the conference. http://www.eswiconference.org/
(1i) International Ministerial Conference on Avian and Pandemic Influenza, Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. 24-26 October 2008.
This meeting organised by the Government of Egypt is the sixth in a series of high level meetings that began in Washington in October 2005, followed by Beijing (January 2006), Vienna (June 2006) Bamako (December 2006) and Delhi (November 2007). The Delhi meeting established a Road Map for countries to progress AI prevention and pandemic planning during 2008.
The Ministerial meeting in Egypt is supported by many bodies including the European Union, United Nations, WHO, United States international aid (USAID), the World Bank, the two major global animal health organisations (OIE & FAO) and the African Union.
The focus is to assess the current epidemiological situation and progress since Delhi, and review the effectiveness of the strategies applied and remap the way forward in global avian and pandemic flu preparedness and response for 2009. A group from the UN Development programme (UNDP) is in the process of preparing a report for the meeting. See the last report.
Find also more information on the conference website. http://www.imcapi2008.gov.eg/
(1j) International symposium on viral respiratory disease surveillance. Seville, Spain 25-27th March 2009. International Society for Influenza and other Respiratory Virus Disease (ISIRV)
Find more information on the conference. http://www.isirv.org/
-
--------