CDC, HHS Issue Planning Guide, PSAs on Pandemic Preparedness

The CDC and HHS recently announced two efforts designed to help state and local decision makers optimize their pandemic influenza preparedness activities.

A CDC guide, (PDF file: 97 pages / 10.3 MB. More about PDFs.), developed in collaboration with other federal agencies and public health and private partners, focuses primarily on community-level strategies that could be used during the initial stages of a pandemic to delay or mitigate the spread of infection until a targeted vaccine became available. These strategies are primarily nonpharmaceutical interventions such as social distancing to reduce person-to-person contact.

The guide, Interim Pre-pandemic Planning Guidance: Community Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Mitigation in the United States -- Early, Targeted, Layered Use of Nonpharmaceutical Interventions, also introduces a pandemic severity index (PSI) intended to help forecast a pandemic's impact and inform implementation of specific recommendations based on its severity. The PSI is modeled after the system currently used to categorize hurricanes, so a category 1 pandemic, for example, would be relatively mild, with a mortality rate similar to that of a severe seasonal influenza season; a serious pandemic, such as the 1918 pandemic, would be classified as a category 5.

Also discussed in the guide are triggers for initiating use of recommended nonpharmaceutical interventions, duration of their implementation and other critical issues. Individual appendices cover community mitigation interim planning strategies for specific settings, such as businesses and other employers, elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, and faith-based and community organizations.

In addition, HHS has introduced a new series of television and radio public service announcements encouraging people to learn more about pandemic influenza and their state and community's efforts to prepare.