Video: Preparing Against a Pandemic in the EU: Much Done - More Still to be Done

Video: Preparing Against a Pandemic in the EU: Much Done - More Still to be Done

LONDON, Feb. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- A report prepared for the European Commission by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and published today, concludes that the EU and its Member States have made major progress in preparing against an influenza pandemic -- but they still have at least two more years of work to do. Additional efforts need to be made in areas such as: consistency of planning across all government departments; implementation at local level; co-ordination at European level; research on influenza; and response to seasonal influenza. The report has been prepared with information and input from 25 EU Member States plus Iceland and Norway. A further progress report is planned for late 2007.

To view the Multimedia News Release, go to: http://prnewswire.com/mnr/worldtelevision/27027/

Commenting on the report ECDC Director Zsuzsanna Jakab said:

"Since 2005 health authorities across the EU have put major efforts into improving their preparedness against a pandemic. This has been an almost unprecedented response against a threat that has yet to come. The challenge now is for governments and EU bodies to sustain the momentum for a further two or three years, to do the work identified in this report. If this is done, then EU countries will be in a position to respond well to a pandemic."

Report finds preparedness has improved

The report, which was produced at the request of Markos Kyprianou, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, finds that since 2005 considerable progress has been achieved. Major investments of efforts and monies have been made in the health sectors in all Member States: they have produced national plans and are working with the Commission and ECDC to steadily improving their state of preparedness; many countries have taken innovative approaches which other countries can learn from.

Work still needed

The report identifies many specific developments that countries will now consider as options. However there are five areas where more work needs to be done. These are: ensuring that planning and preparedness are integrated across government departments (a pandemic will affect the whole of society, not just the health sector); making plans operational down to the local level so that individual citizens will benefit; ensuring that national plans and actions work well together between and within countries; undertaking research into the basic parameters of influenza transmission and the effectiveness of interventions against the infection; and strengthening the response to seasonal influenza.

Two to three more years

ECDC estimates that a further two to three years of sustained effort and investment are needed by the EU and its Member States to achieve the level of preparedness needed to respond well to a pandemic, where EU countries can be confident that:

* primary care systems will be able to deliver treatment to most of
those who need it during the pandemic;
* hospital systems will be able to deliver acute care to pandemic
influenza patients as well as continuing to provide essential
treatment for patients with other conditions;
* essential services like power, food and fuel supplies will continue to
function at the local level;
* pandemic vaccine(s) will arrive in the hands of primary care services
within six months of the start of the pandemic.

Background

The ECDC report gives the most authoritative picture to date of the state of pandemic preparedness in the EU. Twenty-seven countries participated in the preparedness review on which this report is based: all 25 countries that were EU Member States in 2006, plus Iceland and Norway. A series of workshops with public health officials from these countries took place in the autumn of 2006. In addition, ECDC in partnership with the European Commission and the World Health Organisation (WHO), has a programme of country visits to EU Member States to assist them in improving their preparedness. Knowledge and insights gained on visits to 15 Member States fed into this report(1).

Next steps

The ECDC report has been sent to the European Commission and individual Member States to inform their decision making on pandemic preparedness. The report has been distributed to members of the European Parliament's Environment and Public Health Committee and ECDC Director Zsuzsanna Jakab will present it at the 27 February meeting of this Committee in Brussels. ECDC will continue to conduct country visits in 2007 and is aiming to produce an updated status report on pandemic preparedness when these have been completed.

Further information
Ben Duncan, ECDC Spokesman, tel: +46.708.597833, http://ecdc.europa.eu/

A background article will appear in the journal Eurosurveillance (www.eurosurveillance.org) on February 22nd

See also http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/dyna/influenza/index.cfm

(1) Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, United Kingdom

For more information regarding interview opportunities, or copies of video material, please contact:

Emalee Mandl
Media Relations at World Television
+46 (0)8 50 65 70 00
mediarelations@world-television.com

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Video: http://prnewswire.com/mnr/worldtelevision/27027
Source: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control; World Television

CONTACT: Ben Duncan, ECDC Spokesman, tel: +46.708.597833; or Emalee
Mandl, Media Relations at World Television, +46 (0)8 50 65 70 00,
mediarelations@world-television.com

Web site: http://www.world-television.com/
http://ecdc.europa.eu/

-------
Profile: intent