UK Influenza Pandemic Strategy Document Published

A public consultation on the Government's UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy took place between 22 March 2011 and 17 June 2011. From that consultation, the Dept of Health developed a news strategy and published it on 10th November.

The UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy 2011 describes the Government's strategic approach for responding to an influenza pandemic. It updates the clinical, health and scientific advice and information contained in 'Pandemic flu: a national framework for responding to an influenza pandemic 2007' and replaces that document.

Following this, the CWU's National Health, Safety & Environment department have this week issued a letter to all its branches, given detail of the new strategy document. In LTB985/11, the Union's National Health, Safety & Environment officer Dave Joyce writes:

'Each year, seasonal influenza affects many thousands of people in the UK. Occurring mainly in winter, it is an infectious respiratory disease capable of producing symptoms ranging from those similar to a common cold, through to very severe or even fatal. It brings about variable effects in successive winters and in some years causes intense pressure on health and social care services and significant levels of absence from the workplace and schools.

From time to time, with unpredictable frequency, a distinctly different strain of influenza virus will emerge that spreads rapidly across the world, causing an influenza pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) currently defines a pandemic as the worldwide spread of a new disease. An influenza pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus emerges and spreads around the world, and most people do not have immunity.

When an influenza pandemic occurs, large swathes of the population may become infected by the new virus over a relatively short period of time. It may be associated with mild to moderate illness in the population (which may or may not be widespread), or significant severe illness and mortality in certain age or patient groups, and may significantly disrupt the normal functioning of society. It is necessary to mobilise the collective efforts of society in order to manage the impact of a pandemic.

For these reasons, a new influenza pandemic continues to be recognised as one of the greatest threats facing the UK.

In many respects, pandemic influenza can be responded to in the same way as seasonal influenza. The same good hygiene measures can reduce the spread of infection. The same self-care measures – staying at home, keeping warm, drinking plenty of fluids and the use of over the counter cold and ‘flu medicines - should be sufficient to meet the needs of most patients infected with an influenza virus that causes mild to moderate symptoms.

However, additional plans, over and above those for seasonal influenza, are needed for pandemic influenza to:

• Ensure that we are able to detect the emergence of a new virus and its arrival in the UK as quickly as possible and to determine the severity of illness, age groups and populations most affected and how transmissible it is.

• Take account of the potentially much greater number of people who will become ill with influenza and / or experience more severe symptoms and of the resulting potential impact on both the health system and the wider economy.

• Prepare for an influenza pandemic that may have a high impact on the health system and wider society.

Whilst influenza pandemics have been relatively infrequent over the past century, a new pandemic could emerge at any time. DOH Plans for responding to any influenza pandemic build on and enhance normal business continuity planning for more routine pressures such as bad weather and winter illness. Pandemic preparedness is therefore an integral part of wider emergency response and preparedness.'

The original document, The UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy 2011, can be downloaded from the E-Library Database using the search term 'influenza'

For information about this year's flu jab see here

The full LTB985/11 can be downloaded here

Source: CWU / Dept Of Health

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