CDC ISSUES PANDEMIC

SYSTEMS PLAN

BASELINE APRIL 2008

14

THE POSSIBILITY OF
A FLU PANDEMIC IS
SO SERIOUS THAT
UNCLE SAM IS
SETTING UP A HOST
OF SYSTEMS TO
SUPPORT A NATIONWIDE
RESPONSE SHOULD
AN OUTBREAK OCCUR.
BY DOUG BARTHOLOMEW
AND CHRIS GONSALVES

ARE THE NATION’S SYSTEMS READY to support an all-out fight against an influenza pandemic?

The just-released Influenza Pandemic Plan from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists 13 different systems for identifying, alerting, responding to and tracking a potential pandemic flu outbreak. Most of these systems—some are completed and others are under development—are designed to perform specific tasks, but the CDC struggles with its centerpiece, the fledgling $100 million BioSense network.

For instance, if avian flu were to suddenly make the biological leap to a form that could be transmitted among humans, U.S. hospitals and physicians’ offices would be over whelmed. An esti-

mated 18 million patients would need immediate care, 300,000 to 800,000 of them would require hospitalization and 90,000 to 200,000 people could die.

And the avian flu, known as H5N1, isn’t the only potential virus that could develop into a pandemic. During the 20th century, there were three flu pandemics.

The possibility of a flu pandemic is so serious that Uncle Sam is setting up a host of systems to detect the warning signs and support a nationwide response should an outbreak occur. Since 2002, the CDC has spent more than $5 billion to improve public health preparedness and response.

The CDC’s primary nationwide hospital network-based defensive system, the BioSense network (see Baseline, March 2006), was designed to provide