WASHINGTON -- The Bush
administration's long-awaited plan on how to fight the next super-flu will
likely include beefed-up attempts to spot human infections early, both here and
abroad.
Expect
recommendations on how to isolate the sick. Governors and mayors are on notice
to figure out who will actually inject stockpiled vaccines into the arms of
panicked people.
Bush on Tuesday is visiting the
National Institutes of Health to announce his administration's strategy on how
to prepare for the next flu pandemic, whether it's caused by the bird flu in
Asia or some other super strain of influenza. Federal health officials have
spent the last year updating a national plan on how to do that.
The president will
ask Congress for unspecified new money, not just for a vaccine against bird flu
but to fund a buildup of infrastructure ready to deal with any pandemic, said a
senior administration official, who spoke Saturday on condition of
anonymity.
Stockpiling drugs
and vaccines is just one component.
"Understand that a
lot of the things we need to do to prepare are not related to magic bullets,"
said Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota, an infectious disease
specialist who has advised the government on preparations for the next worldwide
flu outbreak but has not seen the final version of the plan.
How to provide food
supplies, everyday medical care for people who don't have the super-flu, basic
utilities and even security must be part of the plan, Osterholm and others have
counseled the Bush administration.
"In this day and
age of a global economy, with just-in-time delivery and no surge capacity and
international supply chains _ those things are very difficult to do for a week,
let alone for 12 to 18 months of what will be a very tough time," he
said.
While it is
impossible to say when the next super-flu will strike, there have been three
pandemics in the last century and influenza experts say the world is overdue.
Concern is growing that the bird flu could trigger one if it mutates to start
spreading easily among people _ something that hasn't yet happened.
Already the
government is buying $162.5 million worth of vaccine against that bird flu
strain, called H5N1, from two companies _ Sanofi-Aventis and Chiron Corp. _ in
case that happens. It also is ordering millions of doses of Tamiflu and Relenza,
two antiflu drugs believed to offer some protection against the bird flu,
stockpiles that the pandemic plan is expected to order be
augmented.
Lawmakers angry at
months of delay have already given Bush money to begin those preparations: $8
billion in emergency funding that the Senate, pushed by Democrats, passed on
Thursday _ and an amount considered close to what federal health officials will
need.
The money is to be
spent at the president's discretion, but senators said it should be used both
for medications and vaccine and for beefing up hospitals and other systems to
detect and contain a super-flu.
Sen. Edward
Kennedy, D-Mass., called the funding "a victory for common sense."
But amid growing
public fear about the bird flu, federal health officials are beginning to wonder
about a backlash if the worrisome strain in fact fizzles out _ or is contained
in birds, as specialists are struggling to do _ and never threatens Americans'
health.
"Will critics say,
'We have been crying wolf,' and lose the sense of urgency we feel about this
issue?" Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt asked last week.
They shouldn't, he
stressed _ because pandemic preparations to improve how vaccines are made and
diseases are detected will improve public health overall.
"If it isn't the current
H5N1 cirus that leads to an influenza pandemic, at some point in our nation's
future another virus will," Leavitt said.
