Flu Pandemics - Are we due for another one?

Assuming such medication would actually work on a pandemic strain of flu virus, Dr. Catherine Macken at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has stated that antiviral medication can only abate the spread of infection and cannot provide any long-term immunity.  Antiviral drugs act on viruses in a similar way to how antibiotics act on bacteria: as soon as treatment ceases, the risk of infection is restored.  The limited supply and expiry date of these drugs would only act to defer a pandemic rather than deter it. 

Preventing a pandemic

Experts are already thinking ahead and taking preventative measures.    The World Health Organisation Global Influenza Surveillance Network is a network of laboratories worldwide that perform genetic analyses of around 2000 flu viruses each year to monitor and detect the emergence of new viruses.  This allows early detection of strains that could cause pandemics and enables the development of new vaccines every year that are specific to the new strains.

By studying strains of flu that caused pandemics in the past, researchers may also gain some useful insight into the virus.  On 17^th October 2006, The National Institute of Health in the U.S. advised that federal scientists led by Dr. Gary Nabel at Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) had developed a vaccine that provided mice with immunity against the strain of the 1918 flu virus.  “Understanding why this influenza virus was so deadly is an extremely important question”, says NIAID director Anthony S. Fauci. “By building upon earlier research where scientists successfully reconstructed the 1918 pandemic flu strain, Dr. Nabel and his colleagues have demonstrated that this virus is vulnerable to intervention.  This knowledge will help further our continued efforts to develop treatments and vaccines to protect us against another deadly flu pandemic.” 

In the meantime, what we can do is increase awareness.  Global surveillance schemes and international sharing of information should help governments stay informed and give them time to plan appropriately.  When a threat is imminent, strict detection methods should be swiftly implemented at ports of entry, and in high-risk public places like hospitals, so as to prevent as much as possible the spread of infection into new regions. Most importantly, preparing the population through education and awareness campaigns will mean that everyone knows what symptoms to look out for and how to respond efficiently and most of all, without panicking.

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