EU not fully prepared for influenza pandemic 

Top public health officials from the EU, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) gathered on 25-27 September 2007 for a workshop to review recent progress made on preparedness for influenza pandemics. 

"All EU member states now have [preparedness] plans in place. As a result, the EU is far better equipped to handle a pandemic than two years ago. But it is still only 'halftime', and a second phase of preparedness must now begin," said ECDC Director Zsuzsanna Jakab. 

According to her, the upcoming "second phase" should focus on making the plans more integrated and operational across all levels of society over the next two or three years.

Jakab highlighted in particular five areas where progress by both member states and the EU institutions is still needed:

• Integrated planning and preparedness across government departments as a pandemic will affect all sectors; 
• interoperability of national plans and actions between and within countries; 
• research into the basic parameters of influenza transmission and the effectiveness of interventions; 
• better response to seasonal influenza, and; 
• making plans operational down to the local level.

According to Jakab, making the preparedness plans operational at the local level "is probably the most difficult part as it means preparing individual doctors, hospitals, schools and even the local supermarket." 

Based on the workshop, the ECDC will produce a status report on the pandemic preparedness in October 2007.