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Travel Bans, Drug Rationing Included in Bush Bird Flu Plan

November 2, 2005

Bird Flu • Bird Flu Not the Only Animal Disease Threat • Bird Flu Vaccine Trials 'Encouraging' • FDA Frets about Flu Drugs' Side Effects • World Not Ready For Bird Flu • Researchers: Bird Flu Pandemic Inevitable • Bird Flu Scare in Virginia • FDA Issues Flu Vaccine Guidelines • FDA Approves First Bird Flu Vaccine • More Flu Bugs Show Resistance To Anti-Virals • Seasonal Flu Shot Might Offer Some Bird Flu Protection • Experts Concerned about Tamiflu Overuse • Study Finds Much Bird Flu Planning is Misplaced • U.S. Orders More Bird Flu Vaccine • Scientists Identify Genetic Changes That Could Lead to Bird Flu Pandemic • Drug Interaction Can Render Tamiflu Ineffective • New Bird Flu Variant Renews Pandemic Concerns • Researchers Find New Weapon Against Flu Virus • Researchers Test Spreadability of Bird Flu Viruses to Humans • GlaxoSmithKline Claims Bird Flu Breaththrough • Global Corporations Struggle to Plan For Pandemic • Flu Pandemic Is "Inevitable," EU Experts Warn • Bird Flu Virus May Have Mutated In Indonesian Cases • Indonesian Nurse May Have Bird Flu • Study Warns of "Chaos" and "Panic" If Bird Flu Strikes • Investigators Find No Evidence Bird Flu Virus Has Mutated • Scientists Fear Bird Flu Virus May Have Mutated • Airlines Queasy About Quarantining Bird Flu Victims • More ...

Travel bans, drug rationing and armed guards outside hospitals could all be implemented if the H5N1 strain of bird flu mutates and begins spreading from human to human, Bush Administration officials said in plans released today and in testimony before Congress.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Michael Leavitt said a flu pandemic could infect up to one-third of the U.S. population, possibly killing anywhere from 209,000 to 1.9 million. It would spread fastest among school-age children, infecting 40 percent of them, Leavitt said.

The plan urges local officials to begin planning now for how they would handle an outbreak in their communities. Key elements in planning should include triage centers that would keep infected individuals out of hospital emergency rooms, to prevent spreading the flu to other patients and staff.

President Bush yesterday outlined his $7.1 billion strategy, which is centered on deetecting and containing any outbreaks before the virus reaches the U.S. and improving the vaccine industry so that massive quanitites of vaccine could be produced and distributed quickly.

No one can predict when the next flu pandemic will occur, though public health officials are worried about the H5N1 strain now killing millions of birds in Asia and elsewhere. H5N1 is not now capable of spreading from person to person but that could change quickly.

There have been three flu pandemics in the last century. Modern air travel could hasten the spread of any lethal virus, adding to the risk already posed by the annual global movements of millions of ducks, geese and other migratory fowl.

Critics of the Bush plan said it was too little, too late.

"While it is welcome news that the administration is focused on vaccine research and stockpiling in the event of a pandemic flu, the question is how will the administration handle distribution and communications with a system that has failed to meet seasonal flu vaccine demands in three out of the last five years?" Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) asked.

Defending the Bush plan was Dr. Rajeev Venkayya, special assistant to the president for biological defense policy. He called it a "crash program" that would make a start at preparing the United States for a possible outbreak of avian flu in people and help the rest of the world as well.

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