Influenza Pandemic: Federal Agencies Should Continue to Assist States to Address Gaps in Pandemic Planning

摘要

The Implementation Plan for the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza states that in an influenza pandemic, the primary response will come from states and localities. To assist them with pandemic planning and exercising, Congress has provided $600 million to states and certain localities. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) established five federal influenza pandemic regions to work with states to coordinate planning and response efforts. GAO was asked to (1) describe how selected states and localities are planning for an influenza pandemic and who they involved, (2) describe the extent to which selected states and localities conducted exercises to test their influenza pandemic planning and incorporated lessons learned as a result, and (3) identify how the federal government can facilitate or help improve state and local efforts to plan and exercise for an influenza pandemic. GAO conducted site visits to five states and 10 localities. All of the five states and 10 localities reviewed by GAO had developed influenza pandemic plans. In fact, according to officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which administers the federal pandemic funds, all 50 states have developed an influenza pandemic plan, in accordance with federal pandemic funding requirements.