COMMUNICATION STRATEGY FOR PRECAUTION DURING A PANDEMIC OUTBREAK

NOTABLE INFLUENZA PANDEMICS AND CORRESSPONDING DEATH RATIOS:

Name of pandemic	Date	Deaths	Subtype involved
Asiatic (Russian) Flu	1889–90	1 million	possibly H2N2
Spanish Flu	1918–20	50 million	H1N1
Asian Flu	1957–58	1.5 to 2 million	H2N2
Hong Kong Flu	1968–69	1 million	H3N2
Swine Flu	As of June 25th, 2010	over 18,209[6]	novel H1N1

The above table signifies the impact of an influenza flu pandemic that has been occurring throughout the years and the role of the influenza strains and their subtypes involved in the corresponding death ratios dated from 1889-2010.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_pandemic

The above illustration demonstrates the impact of influenza ‘A’ virus sub-types in human population over the years leading to possible pandemic threat in the upcoming future. The solid squares indicate the appearance of a new strain while broken strain indicate uncertain strain identifications.  

Planning to overcome an influenza pandemic is entirely a role that is subjective to central government and in order for proper implementation and execution of the plans, acknowledging the frameworks of health system governance is a mandatory activity. The district health governance planning authority has a vital role to play in order to ensure and monitor the completion of district plans at a national level.

Strategy to use anti-viral drugs with basic prophylaxis treatment methodologies combined with implementation of social distancing measures is a key to success and effective working of the national plans. Government commitment in most of the European countries has a strong solid foundation in laying out an upbeat level of pandemic preparedness. Monitoring and Surveillance capabilities and laboratory diagnostic operations are well scrutinized where public health infrastructure is significant and widely accepted.