Fergie's Tech Blog

H5N1 News: Improved global disease surveillance systems needed

Bob Brewin writes in Government Health IT:

Health ministers and delegates from more than 30 countries and international health organizations meeting in Ottawa, Canada, this week called for beefed up efforts, including improved disease surveillance systems, to prepare for a possible flu pandemic.

In a communiqué released yesterday at the end of the two-day “Global Pandemic Influenza Readiness” meeting, delegates, including Mike Leavitt, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said that “while at this time, there is no pandemic influenza anywhere in the world, vigilance and surveillance need to remain high.”

But the delegates said monitoring the H5N1 strain of influenza, known as bird flu, is essential. They agreed that the immediate global public health issue “is to work collaboratively with the animal health sector to prevent and contain the spread of the H5N1 virus among animals and from animals to humans.”

posted by Fergie @ 10/26/2005 03:59:00 PM