Last Chance to Stop Avian Flu Pandemic

摘要

Events in Asia over the past few months have put the world on a short fuse toward the explosion of a global influenza pandemic. Avian influenza (H5N1) has broken out in several new places, and last Spring it infected another species, the pig, which could act as a carrier and mixing vessel for the recombination of a hybrid virus that can easily infect people. This very lethal influenza virus has only to acquire the ability to spread easily from person to person to become the most deadly flu pandemic ever recorded. However, most of the world remains sorely unprepared to deal with the public health crisis that the new flu pandemic will bring. The United States itself is suffering a serious crisis in its public health response capability, as a result of years of willful neglect. The U.S. government has done nothing to address the lack of hospital and clinic capacity that would be required to deal with a pandemic, although a typical flu season already overwhelms the hospitals in many areas of the country. Antiviral production capacity is severely restricted, and vaccine production has not been geared up for the sort of crash program that is needed.