EU takes stock of flu pandemic simulation exercise 

The ability of the EU-25 (and Bulgaria and Romania) to coordinate their response to an influenza pandemic was tested in a pan-European 'worst case scenario' simulation exercise on 23-24 November 2005. The aim of the exercise was to identify weaknesses in the national and EU-level preparedness.

According to the EU's Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou, the exercise highlighted, firstly, the need for "a policy on the issue of the use of a stockpile of vaccines at European level, whether it be a stock of the Commission or a result of member states sharing part of their stock". He said the EU stock would only be a stockpile for containment and member states would still need to have their individual stocks. "Building up a European stock is a political decision to be discussed by the Council," he added.

Secondly, the simulation exercise pointed to the need to "reexamine the whole issue of technical support", said Kyprianou, referring to technical problems at the Commission level. "We may have the best policies and take the best decisions - technical problems will cause delay in their implementation," he added, referring to interruption in the continuous flow of information transmitted via the communications infrastructure by emails, internet and telephones.

Thirdly, Commissioner said that co-ordination between different services, such as health, transport and research, inside the Commission still needed improvement. The overall communication with the public also needs more coherent planning in order to not to cause panic.

Following the simulation exercise, two new Commission communications were adopted on 29 November 2005: one on  strengthening EU coordination on generic preparedness for public health emergencies and the other on  influenza pandemic preparedness and response planning . The latter updates the existing plan of March 2004. Both documents highlight the need to extend emergency planning beyond the health sector to include aspects of civil protection, transport, communications, emergency services, investment in laboratories and international relations into the preparedness planning.