Improving Influenza Surveillance and Developing a Rapid Response Plan for Pandemic Influenza

I want to focus my remarks today on one specific aspect of preparedness: the early recognition and rapid response to the emergence of a pandemic strain. We believe that the international community must take immediate steps to close the gaps in influenza surveillance (especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America) and reach consensus on what actions will be taken and by whom to contain a pandemic strain when it emerges.

Specifically, in order to do this we must address the following questions:

• What data and facts on the ground will define sustained human-to-human transmission?
• What is the concept of operations for the WHO stockpile for antiviral drugs and other materiel?
• What other assets will be deployed to the outbreak site, how, and by whom?
• How will these assets be used, and by whom?
• What technical expertise will be needed, who will provide it, and how soon?
• Should international response personnel be pre-identified and made ready for immediate employment? Would it be possible for the governments of affected and at-risk nations to grant flexible, multi-entry visas to these pre-selected experts?
• What interventions – pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical – will be employed, and under what conditions?

We must go beyond generalized planning and well-intentioned expressions of cooperation. Now is the time to speak and act with specificity. We therefore propose that the WHO immediately convene a small group of experts to draft a plan to close the gaps in influenza surveillance and to define a protocol for a rapid response to the emergence of a pandemic strain. This plan should be completed in time for consideration by the WHO Executive Board in January.

Finally, with the threat of a pandemic looming, we believe it important that countries voluntarily comply now with the relevant provisions of the recently revised WHO International Health Regulations in advance of their formal entry into force in 2007. Among other things and of particular importance in the context of pandemic influenza, the regulations stress the importance of early reporting of any potential public health emergency of international concern.