Extensive biological terrorism preparedness training helped U.S. health workers prepare for a deadly swine flu outbreak now spreading across North America and abroad, Newsweek reported this week (see GSN, April 28).
(Apr. 29) -
Doctors work today at a hospital in Mexico, the epicenter of a swine flu outbreak that as of yesterday had killed more than 150 people (Ronaldo Schemidt/Getty Images).
After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. hospitals began preparing to handle victims of a deliberately released disease agent (see GSN, April 24). Those efforts equipped the country's medical community to respond to the swine flu outbreak more effectively than its counterpart in Mexico, where the disease had killed more than 150 people as of yesterday, one expert said.
"The level of preparedness is unprecedented," said Gregory Gray, head of the University of Iowa's Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases. "We've been drilling for this potential eventuality, not just for influenza but for other biological emergencies."
The United States has a number of other advantages over Mexico, where the outbreak is believed to have originated, according to Newsweek.
"We have many more resources: more hospitals, better critical care, more facilities for doctors and nurses, much better diagnostic capabilities. They've done an excellent job for a resource-limited country, but we have more resources," said David Weber, medical director of hospital epidemiology for the University of North Carolina Medical Center.
The United States has also had more opportunity to prepare for the virus and could benefit from aggressive national and international efforts to restrict the spread of the disease. The U.S. Health and Human Services Department has designated the outbreak as a public health emergency, while the World Health Organization on Monday said there is a significant threat of pandemic.
"This is in recognition that this is a serious event, and we're taking it seriously and acting aggressively," said Richard Besser, acting head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "But what it also does is it gives us additional authority. It allows us to move products and dispense drugs in a way that we couldn't before" (Kate Dailey, Newsweek, April 27).
There have been nearly 100 cases of swine flu in the United States and one death, a Mexican child less than 2 years old, the Associated Presse reported (Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, April 29).
The flu has turned up in at least nine nations, including Austria, Canada, Germany, Israel, New Zealand and Spain, Reuters reported (Maggie Fox, Reuters, April 29).