President to reveal plans for dealing with super-flu
It should be more than just stockpiling vaccines.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration's long-awaited plan on how to fight the next super-flu will likely include beefed-up attempts to spot human infections early, both here and abroad.
Expect recommendations on how to isolate the sick. Governors and mayors are on notice to figure out who will actually inject stockpiled vaccines into the arms of panicked people.
Bush is visiting the National Institutes of Health on Tuesday to announce his administration's strategy on how to prepare for the next flu pandemic, whether it's caused by the bird flu in Asia or some other super strain of influenza. Federal health officials have spent the last year updating a national plan on how to do that.
The president will ask Congress for unspecified new money, not just for a vaccine against bird flu but to fund a buildup of infrastructure ready to deal with any pandemic, said a senior administration official, who spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity.
Stockpiling drugs and vaccines is just one component.
"Understand that a lot of the things we need to do to prepare are not related to magic bullets," said Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota, an infectious disease specialist.
How to provide food supplies, everyday medical care for people who don't have the super-flu, basic utilities and even security must be part of the plan, Osterholm and others have counseled the Bush administration.
While it is impossible to say when the next super-flu will strike, there have been three pandemics in the last century, and influenza experts say the world is overdue. Concern is growing that the bird flu could trigger one if it mutates to start spreading easily among people -- something that hasn't yet happened.