US Government
What is being done by the US Government at the present time as far as readiness plan is concerned?
Emily Grupp writes: The Center For Disease Control and Prevention is in charge of creating a medical emergency readiness plan.
Ashley Guiliani writes: The United States is combating the spread of Bird Flu by enforcing a ban on the import of birds and products derived from birds from certain countries. Some countries such as Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam are not able to export birds to our country at all. Other countries such as France, Germany, and Sweden have zones within the country that are not allowed to export birds to us.
Mike Brown writes: The US government is preparing for the flu in many different ways. On
the global scale, the US has gave a very large monetary amount of
money, $334 million at the Beijing donors' conference in January 2006
to be used for programs to combat the development of the flu. This
contribution brought the global fund to $1.9 billion to combat avian
influenza worldwide. This money will be used to: develop national
plans, support development of diagnostics and laboratory capacity,
stockpile protective equipment and emergency health commodities ,
conduct international communications campaigns and public outreach
activities and support the work of the WHO and the FAO.
On the national scale, the US Department of Health and Human Services
has developed a HHS Pandemic Influenza Plan. This plan is a blueprint
for different agency involvement in prevention and preparedness for
avoiding, controlling, and combating the a flu pandemic. Through this
program and many others, the US Government is allowing more of the
focus for combating the pandemic to be in the hands of the states and
local governments. With certain guidelines to follow, the states will
have an easier time combating a pandemic as they will have a lower
number of people to handle than if the federal government were to
attempt this on a large scale.
Amanda, Leah & Liz write: Many Federal agencies are working together to formulate policies and strategic plans to ensure prompt and effective responses to terrorist attacks that employ biological or chemical agents. In his commencement address at the U.S. Naval Academy on May 22, 1998, President Clinton announced his intention to upgrade our public health systems for disease detection and early warning, both to improve our preparedness against terrorism and to help us cope with naturally occurring infectious disease outbreaks. CDC and other agencies are assessing what is necessary to implement such an upgrade.
CDC also is participating in a working group on domestic and international surveillance for bioterrorism, conducted under the auspices of the Emerging Infections Task Force of the Committee on International Science, Engineering, and Technology (CISET), National Science and Technology Council. The Task Force is based in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). In addition, CDC works on bioterrorism issues with the Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP), OSTP, and the National Security Council.
Daniel Szyprowski writes: The government has a plan that provides funding for early detection, containment, and treatment of an outbreak. It also calls for improving the process of creating flu vaccines and stockpiling antiviral drugs.
President Bush said Tuesday he is making these requests from Congress as part of his influenza pandemic plan:
_ $251 million to help foreign partners train medical personnel, develop monitoring capabilities to detect outbreaks and draw up preparedness plans.
_ $1.2 billion to purchase enough vaccine developed by the National Institutes of Health against current bird flu strain to vaccinate 20 million people.
_ $1 billion to stockpile additional antiviral medications to provide enough to treat first responders and other key personnel.
_ $2.8 billion for a "crash program" to accelerate cell culture technology, which Bush said would produce enough vaccine for all Americans within six months.
_ Relief from the "burden of litigation" for vaccine manufacturers.
_ $583 million for pandemic preparedness, including $100 million to help states complete and exercise their pandemic plans.
Who is responsible for its conception and then the day-to-day operation?
Ashley Guiliani writes: CDC works with other federal agencies, such as the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of USDA, Bureau of Customs and Border Protection of the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of Interior to enforce this embargo. The Department of Interior has legal responsibility for enforcing the embargo.
Dan Szyprowski writes: Although bird flu outbreaks continue in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Near East, with its arrival confirmed in 45 countries, efforts to combat the disease on poultry farms are slowly proving successful. FAO, along with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), continues to urge governments to concentrate containment efforts on farms and to emphasize the role of human activities such as trade that are considered the main spreaders of the virus but can also be inspected, controlled and improved.