HHS Pandemic Influenza Plan

Visit PandemicFlu.gov for one-stop access to U.S. Government avian and pandemic flu information. HHS is responsible for Pandemic Influenza Planning, outlined below.

The newly formed International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza (IPAPI), announced by President Bush at the United Nations General Assembly on September 14, 2005, brings together countries that share a set of core principles to generate and coordinate political momentum for addressing avian and pandemic influenza. With commitment from the highest political levels in countries around the world, IPAPI will strive to improve international surveillance, transparency, timeliness, and response capabilities and facilitate sharing of epidemiological information and samples critical for the response effort.

The Senior Officials Meeting of IPAPI, held in Washington, DC, on October 7, 2005, launched the Partnership and led to a jointly developed plan of action for coordinating national activities, evaluating national capabilities and filling gaps. This plan, based on the partnership’s core principles (below), will supplement ongoing and planned international efforts and support the work of the relevant international organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Animal Health Organization (OIE), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and other international and regional bodies and the private sector, NGOs, and others.

At the first meeting of IPAPI over 80 countries and 8 international organizations came together, endorsing the core principles and agreeing to follow up on a number of major policy issues that need further discussion at the highest political levels to resolve concerns or gain true consensus so that necessary movement can occur. A summary document that identifies the issues of greatest policy significance for dealing with the threats of avian and pandemic influenza was developed. Sub-groups of partners will deal with these, so that by the middle of 2006, progress made in raising the political attention on the problem and addressing the issues identified will be reported. Countries will convene the meetings of the sub-groups to focus on the issues identified. These sub-groups will coordinate with the relevant international organizations on technical matters. The sub-groups will identify any gaps needing further attention, and additional sub-groups may form to address issues as they arise.

The Core Principles that underpin the Partnership are:

1. International cooperation to protect the lives and health of our people;
2. Timely and sustained high-level global political leadership to combat avian and pandemic influenza;
3. Transparency in reporting of influenza cases in humans and in animals caused by strains that have pandemic potential, to increase understanding, preparedness, and especially to ensure rapid and timely response to potential outbreaks;
4. Immediate sharing of epidemiological data and samples with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the international community to detect and characterize the nature and evolution of any outbreaks as quickly as possible by utilizing, where appropriate, existing networks and mechanisms;
5. Rapid reaction to address the first signs of accelerated transmission of H5N1 and other highly pathogenic influenza strains so that appropriate international and national resources can be brought to bear;
6. Prevent and contain an incipient epidemic through capacity building and in-country collaboration with international partners;
7. Work in a manner complementary to and supportive of expanded cooperation with and appropriate support of key multilateral organizations (WHO, Food and Agriculture Organization, World Organization for Animal Health);
8. Timely coordination of bilateral and multilateral resource allocations, dedication of domestic resources (human and financial), improvements in public awareness, and development of economic and trade contingency plans;
9. Increased coordination and harmonization of preparedness, prevention, response, and containment activities among nations, complementing domestic and regional preparedness initiatives and encouraging where appropriate the development of strategic regional initiatives;
10. Actions based on the best available science.

This Partnership will help us improve international surveillance, transparency, timeliness, and response capabilities. Since pandemics are diseases without borders, the influenza virus will not respect political or geographic boundaries—a threat against one nation is a threat against the entire world. This initiative will strive for complete transparency, rapid response capabilities, cooperative surveillance, and will facilitate the sharing of epidemiological data and samples with each other and with the relevant international organizations. This will give us commitment from the highest political levels in countries around the world to adhere to these principles.

Future activities

In addition to participating in IPAPI, HHS will continue to work with other governments, international organizations such as GHSAG and WHO, the newly appointed UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Pandemic Influenza, and other U.S. agencies individually as part of the overall USG international strategy. We will pursue a diplomatic strategy and provide technical assistance to affected countries and countries at risk. We will provide additional funding in FY 06 and thereafter, building on the work we are doing now in Southeast Asia. We expect to broaden our coverage to other parts of the globe. We will continue to look for increasing human-to-human transmission anywhere in the world as a triggering event for initiating a pandemic response by the U.S. HHS will pursue a prevention approach if possible, and a containment strategy where feasible—acting in concert with WHO and other nations as appropriate. At the core of this strategy, basic public health measures will be essential in reducing transmission in affected countries.