The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released guidance on communicating pediatric-related information on pandemic influenza at the community level. Below are some excerpts from the document.
Effective communication is a key component of emergency response planning. It can help direct the medical community and the general public to take appropriate action to contain a disease outbreak, limit exposure, and reduce morbidity and mortality. On the other hand, ineffective communication can lead to confusion in both the general public and the emergency response community. It can interfere with the response to an incident. It can lead to public distrust and skepticism, and, once that has happened, it is difficult to regain that trust.
The purpose of this document is to provide a suggested approach, based on input from pediatric stakeholders, to communicating pediatric-related information on pandemic influenza at the community level in a step-by-step manner. This is a suggested approach to coordinating communication and disseminating information; it can be adapted or modified to suit most communities as they see fit. The goal is to give community planners "talking points" for discussions on a coordinated approach to communication in their community.
The target audience for this document is community planners who would oversee communication with the medical community and the general public during an influenza pandemic.
During an influenza pandemic, a lack of a coordinated approach to communication between the medical community and the general public can result in confusion and actions that interfere with the medical response to the outbreak. To address this issue, pediatric stakeholders, including members of national associations (medical, health, and school related), pediatric primary care providers, and hospitals, met to develop a suggested approach to coordinating the communication of pediatric-related information during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic.
From The Information Centre on Emerging Infectious Diseases in the ASEAN Plus Three Countries -- 27 January 2010
The ASEAN Secretariat, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Singapore, is convening the ASEAN Meeting on Promoting Access to Antiviral Drugs and Pandemic Influenza Vaccines on 27 to 29 January 2010 in Singapore.
The Meeting is supported by the ASEAN Plus Three Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) Programme which is funded by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). It aims to:
provide an update on status of supply and availability of pandemic influenza vaccine and antiviral drugs at the global, regional (ASEAN) and national levels;
share information among ASEAN Member States on the approaches, strategies and issues related to production, distribution, access and transfer of technology of pandemic influenza vaccine and antiviral agents within the region;
discuss on how to share resources among the Member States, as follow-up to the Joint Statement of the ASEAN Plus Three Health Ministers Special Meeting on Influenza A (H1N1) held on 8 May 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand; and
provide recommendations on ways to promote increased availability of and access to pandemic influenza vaccines and antiviral agents within the region.
The Meeting is attended by Focal Points of the Senior Officials Meeting on Health Development (SOMHD), ASEAN Expert Group on Communicable Diseases (AEGCD), officers from Food and Drug Regulatory bodies of the ASEAN Member States, manufacturers of influenza vaccines and antiviral agents and local manufacturers or sub-licensees of antiviral agents of selected countries.
Serbia and Japan are the latest countries to join the list of nations canceling further purchases of H1N1 vaccine.
Serbian Health Minister Tomica Milosavljevic announced Wednesday that “Serbia paid for 857,500 doses. Out of that amount, 160,000 were administered to citizens”. He added that the country needs to have 300,000 doses in its permanent reserves in case the epidemiological situation deteriorates.
Serbia has registered 690 swine flu cases so far and has experienced 79 fatalities from the virus. On Tuesday, Novartis warned countries not to cancel their orders for the vaccine, stressing that priority in a future epidemic would be given to those states which honored their contract obligations.
Meanwhile, according to Kyodo News, the government of Japan is considering canceling some of its H1N1 flu vaccine purchase contracts with foreign pharmaceutical companies amid the prospect of a surplus in vaccines against the new flu virus, health minister Akira Nagatsuma said Monday.
The Health Department of South Africa is seeking to immunise at least 3 million people against 2009 H1N1 flu before winter sets in, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said yesterday. South Africa currently has 1.3 million doses of vaccine and because South Africa is classified as both a developed and developing country, it was ineligible to receive the free vaccines distributed to many African countries from WHO.
Motsoaledi added that they could not afford to vaccinate everybody and the Ministry is still seeking funding for additional vaccines. The Ministry aims to vaccinate all pregnant women, health care workers, young people, and some people at points of entry into the country.
Global market intelligence firm Synovate has released data from a study examining the physician’s view of the recent Swine Flu pandemic. The survey, which interviewed physicians from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, USA, China, Taiwan and India about their views of the subject, revealed the following findings:
90% of doctors in the US feel that pregnant women should be given the vaccine compared to just 20% of doctors in China.
82% of UK doctors feel the media has over-dramatized the situation.
58% of European doctors have seen their workload increase as a result of swine flu compared to just 35% in the US.
76% of doctors in Taiwan have been vaccinated.
The subject of swine flu vaccination had the doctors divided. Just over half of those surveyed (51%) have themselves been vaccinated, the highest number of which was in Taiwan (76%) and the lowest in Spain (21%). Whilst 37% overall had not had the vaccine nor intended to have it within the next month, 24% of this group still agreed that those under 21 years of age should receive the vaccination and 32% also agreed that frontline staff should receive it.
Overall, just over half of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that young people should be vaccinated. Opinion was much stronger in the US with 88% of doctors agreeing, compared to only 44% in Europe.
Commented Jackie Ilacqua, Head of Global Oncology at Synovate: "In the US we very much have a culture of prevention, so it is not surprising that vaccinations are so strongly encouraged. Perhaps more importantly, in this case, this high figure could be attributed to the many false negatives there have been to the H1N1 test and the resulting statistics on the number of patients affected actually being understated"
Fifty-seven percent of respondents agreed that "pregnant women should be vaccinated as soon as practical" Again, the US physicians felt most strongly with 90% of US doctors agreeing with this statement.
In stark contrast, only 20% of doctors in China agreed. Commented Robert Pollard, Director of Synovate Healthcare China: "Culturally, the Chinese are hesitant to use prophylaxis, especially so when their single child is involved. The low agreement with the statement is probably a result of doctors feeling the risks outweigh the possible benefits. We have seen in other studies in which we talk to frontline outpatient doctors in hospitals that very few of them ever consider having a flu shot even when provided free by their hospital"
Sixty-two percent of doctors surveyed agreed that the swine flu vaccine provides effective protection, while 27% were uncertain. The remaining 11% believe that it does NOT provide effective protection.
As with any issue that becomes a national and even international concern, government reaction is heavily scrutinised. Communication, support and infrastructure to deal with the crisis, as well as control and recovery are all components of an epidemic contingency plan which people expect their government to deliver on. The swine flu outbreak is no different. In this instance, when it came to government handling of the situation, opinion was pretty much split equally with 38% of doctors agreeing that their government had handled it well, 33% disagreeing and 28% neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
The Asian markets seemed to be the most satisfied with their governments’ reaction: 54% agreed that it has been well handled. In Europe, it is a rather different story with only 26% agreeing.
There was also a clear contrast between the views of primary care providers and specialists - 40% of primary care providers indicated that they felt their government had not handled the swine flu outbreak well, compared with only 28% of specialists stating the same.
Sixty-one percent of all physicians surveyed felt or felt strongly that the media in their country has over-dramatised the swine flu outbreak. There were notable regional differences in opinion: 75% of respondents in the European markets agreed, 48% in Asia, and 46% in the US.
Commented a doctor in Germany: "In Germany, we now have 80 million experts with 80 million different opinions. This very important topic has become a victim of a lukewarm election campaign played out in the media"
Perhaps the most critical were the UK doctors with a huge proportion (82%) agreeing or strongly agreeing that the British media has over-dramatised the situation.
Commented Steve Lowery, Group Head Healthcare Custom research UK: "This is hardly surprising given the often sensationalist nature of the British tabloid press. When we consider the media hysteria in recent years about both SARS and Bird Flu, perhaps it is little wonder that this time doctors feel that the risks of swine flu have been exaggerated somewhat in some parts of the media"
In China however, there was a rather different story, with a mere 31% of doctors being unsupportive of the level of media publicity in their market. As with opinion on government handling, a significantly larger proportion of primary care physicians felt the media in their market had over-dramatised the situation (72%) than specialists (55%).
On January 26th, Dr Keiji Fukuda - Special Adviser on Pandemic Influenza to the Director-
General- released a statement to the Council of Europe on behalf of WHO. Topics addressed included:
a) The role of WHO in improving global and national preparedness through the capacity strengthening of laboratories, epidemiological investigations, clinical care and communications, as well as the building of new capacities such as the International Health Regulations.
b) The current global situation regarding the incidence of 2009 H1N1
c) The importance of the International Health Regulations and the Emergency Committee in the actions taken with respect to 2009 H1N1
d) Accusations against WHO about conflicts of interest with respect to the pharmaceutical industry.
January 21 2009-- Nigerian Minister of Health, Babatunde Osotimehin, said negotiations between government and the World Health Organization on securing shipments of 2009 H1N1 vaccine had reached advanced stage.
This news comes after the death of a 38-year-old woman in Lagos from the virus and reports that eight others subsequently tested positive. The Minister noted that before now, Nigeria was not considered a high endemic country, hence the decision by WHO to concentrate the vaccine in countries where the disease was more pronounced.
He also said deaths recorded so far were not a result of the absence of a curative drug, but rather as a result of late diagnoses.
The minister, urged Nigerians to adopt precautionary measures, notably frequent hand washing, use of clean water and soap, keeping hands away from the face while sneezing or coughing as the disease gains access to the body through the eyes and nose, seeking medical attention on noticing cough, catarrh and high fever, among others.
He said the curative drug [Tamiflu] was already available throughout the country and stated that the committee set up to tackle the situation, the National Epidemic Preparedness and Response Committee was already on top of the situation even as he maintained that the government would intensify its campaign on precautionary measures.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Government has expressed its preparedness to control the spread of the disease.
Please see CARE's new Flu Site:http://www.flu.care.org/ for the latest guidance documents from CARE, CDC, WHO in addition to pandemic preparedness and staff safety and security guidelines.
**************** Please also see the Humanitarian Pandemic Preparedness (H2P) site (http://pandemicpreparedness.org/) for guidance on response at the household and community level in developing countries for humanitarian and community-based organizations.
The H2P Initiative, coordinated by Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies and including a wide-range of international partners (including CARE), aims to build a chain of health and disaster management tools and practices to inform and strengthen capacity of community first-responders during an influenza pandemic.
*******
The purpose of the CARE Pandemic and Avian Flu Blog is to create a simple site where CARE staff can stay updated on the latest and most important pandemic and AI news. Since we have access to information and are constantly looking over pandemic and AI related news and materials, it helps us narrow down the best information and provide an easy place for CARE staff to stay updated with information tailored to their needs.
The types of news and information that are posted include:
1. New outbreaks in animals or poultry or new human cases
2. News stories related to pandemic preparedness
3. New tools and materials, especially for community level work or pandemicpreparedness
4. Programs and ideas being implemented by CARE staff
5. Upcoming conferences, events, trainings
All contributors to this blog are subject matter experts in avian and pandemic flu and take news and materials only from the most reputable sources. However, the purpose of a blog is about sharing new information quickly. Therefore, there may occasionally be inaccuracies and mistakes, as there is in all reporting. We will do our best.
Please note, the information and comments here reflect only the opinions and perspectives of the contributors, not CARE as a whole. Please feel free to use the comments function to reply to postings. If you work on avian flu in CARE and would like to be a contributor, please let us know at AvianFluWG@CARE.org
