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ECDC Background Advice on Public Health Measures that may be deployed in the event of an Influenza Pandemic or severe epidemics of seasonal influenza
The document (divided in 3 parts) should be read along with previous guidance that ECDC has published on personal protective measures which is summarized in the text and tables along with the current WHO advice which has been reproduced with kind permission of WHO. Relevant scientific guidance on the use of human H5N1 vaccines is also available and is referred with electronic links in the document.
As befits the limited Mandate of ECDC (to give background advice not to prescribe), the diversity of Europe and the varied form and severity of pandemics the document is a guide or Menu of the possible measures, their advantages and disadvantages etc rather than recommending specific measures.
The guidance is labeled interim as there will be further research findings and it is possible that new countermeasures will emerge. Therefore beyond the outcome of this consultation, the Guide will still need to be updated regularly.
"...The WHO is confident that there has been no reduction in the threat of a pandemic and that, although unpredictable, they can be considered as inevitable [19].
Citizens might mistakenly expect to be well protected by now. Policy-makers might also feel that enough time, effort and resources have been committed. Why does so much remain unfinished after two and a half years of effort? Equally, why does it take so long to prepare complex countries for a pandemic?
This is partly because Europe has never been more vulnerable to a pandemic (Table 1).
Equally, the armoury of countermeasures has never been greater (Table 2). In the 1918-19 ?Spanish Flu?, as many Europeans died as during some of the battles of the 1914-18 war [20]. Now there are the countermeasures, antivirals, human H5N1 vaccines, evidence-based public health measures and modern business continuity planning (Table 2). These will deliver mitigation and reduce suffering and death in the next pandemic, but each countermeasure needs careful planning and organisation. Consider antivirals, for example: most EU Member States have limited stockpiles of varying sizes, according to their individual strategies [21]. However, developing healthcare systems that can deliver antivirals in the midst of a pandemic to most citizens that need them, when and where they need them (within 48 hours of symptoms developing) is proving challenging for all European countries....."
