Spectre of an Influenza Pandemic

An influenza pandemic is a widespread outbreak of an influenza virus that takes a country, a region, or possibly even the whole world wide community by storm.

One of the most devastating instances of a pandemic flu was when the 1918 flu pandemic, also known as the Spanish Flu, swept across practically every region of the world. The Spanish Flu infected an estimated one-third of the population, and was responsible for the deaths of over 40 million people.

The frightening reality of previous pandemics makes people sit up and take notice when talk of the possibility of a new pandemic are brought into the public arena of discussion. Particularly troubling is the comparison of the ease of infecting a global community due to affordable and frequent international travel in this era, as opposed to the travel options available to people at the time of the 1918 flu pandemic. If a pandemic disease could spread across the globe in a time of less common and very slow international travel, then clearly in today's world a highly contagious disease could easily spread far and wide in no time. Certainly this highlights the need to take precautions and consider taking steps in pandemic planning for individuals, families and communities in order to lessen a pandemic impact.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued warnings about a substantial risk of an avian flu pandemic within the next few years. The bird flu is a highly contagious form of an influenza virus, that is actually similar to a common human flu virus. Since the first identification of the bird flu in 1997, hundreds of millions of poultry stock have had to be killed in attempts to stop the spread of this deadly virus, also known as H5N1. This has had devastating economic effects on the poultry industries of many countries. Interestingly, while wild birds are common carriers of this virus, they do not seem to be affected by it.

At this time, the bird flu, also known as the Asian flu because of it's predominance in Southeast Asia, is not readily able to be transferred from one person to another. However, many people have contracted the bird flu by coming into contact with the feces of infected birds. Those working in large poultry facilities and smaller family poultry harms are at risk and must take extra precautions if an infection is evident in the birds they are working around. Over the last ten years, hundreds of people have died from the bird flu. It is the fact that it does not spread from person to person that has kept this virus in check in the human population.

All influenza viruses have a propensity to mutate, which is why new strains of vaccine must be prepared each year to match the changes in the common influenza viruses found in humans. A major concern among health care experts is the possibility that of a variation of the lethal-to-poultry flu virus could mutate into a form that could be easily shared between people, triggering and influenza pandemic.

Influenza pandemics seem to be inevitable but the intervals of occurrence are unpredictable. Experts predict that a future pandemic flu outbreak would be expected to last somewhere between six and eight weeks in each community that is affected, and it is possible that multiple waves of the disease could occur. High employee absenteeism rates would be expected and would result in disruptions of essential services such as police, fire, hospitals, food distribution, garbage management and utilities including communications, electricity, sewage and water. These realities of a possible bird flu pandemic make it essential that each community create an essential services pandemic influenza plan to address these problems.

Spectre of an Influenza Pandemic

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