A pandemic’s dry run

The Boston Globe

ALTHOUGH Massachusetts recorded its first swine-flu death this month, the effect of the disease has not been as dire as many feared. As a result, public health officials have been able to view the health system’s response to the pandemic as a test case for an even more dangerous outbreak of flu. Among the lessons learned is the need for better coordination between the public-health sector and the private suppliers of the tools needed to contend with flu: face masks, swabs, and antiviral medicines such as Tamiflu.

Doctors, clinics, and hospitals need better, up-to-date information about the availability of commercial medicine stockpiles. Inevitably, an illness like flu that strikes patients with varying intensity will be treated in settings ranging from the home to hospital critical-care units. This increases the need for public officials to have a better fix on how quickly supplies of medicines, in particular, are being depleted and how best to blend public and private stockpiles. Officials should consider mandated reporting by commercial suppliers if necessary.

This month also saw the first swine-flu death outside the Western Hemisphere – in Scotland. So far, the disease has claimed fewer than 200 lives globally, far below the 250,000 to 500,000 who die annually around the world during a regular flu season. Still, the World Health Organization declared swine flu a pandemic June 11 because the virus is now undergoing communitywide transmission in both North America and Australia.

Read more….