Health
Rapid response key to dealing with pandemic flu
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted April 23, 2007
Quickly implementing public health measures to reduce social contact is key to reducing mortality from an influenza pandemic, according to a pair of studies published this month in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"While researchers are working very hard to develop pandemic influenza vaccines and increase the speed with which they can be made, non-pharmaceutical interventions may buy valuable time at the beginning of a pandemic," said Anthony S. Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which funded this research.
Scientists used mathematical models to compare the timing of interventions and mortality rates in various U.S. cities. Locales that took early action such as closing schools and churches, mandating mask-wearing and isolating cases early, and maintained these actions throughout the outbreak, reduced transmission rates by 30% to 50%. Cumulative excess mortality was cut by approximately 20%.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/04/23/hlbf0423.htm.
