ABSTRACT
Contents The Nature of Pandemics ................................................................................. 404
Health Concerns of Pandemics .................................................................... 404 Community Continuity Concerns of Pandemics..........................................407 Psychosocial Concerns of Pandemics.............................................................410 Economic Impacts of Pandemics ...................................................................411
Unique Preparedness Requirements of Pandemics.............................................412 Pandemics at Hand-Pandemic Influenzas: Avian and Swine.......................413 Persistence and Pervasiveness of Pandemics................................................... 415 Temporal Requirements of Pandemic Preparedness....................................... 415
Pandemic Preparedness Planning.......................................................................416 Developing a Pandemic Preparedness Plan....................................................417 Training for and Exercising Pandemic Preparedness .................................... 420 Dynamically Replanning for Pandemic Preparedness................................... 422
During and after a Pandemic............................................................................ 422 Responding to Pandemic Infection.............................................................. 422 Communicating during a Pandemic............................................................ 423 Recovering after a Pandemic .........................................................................424
Summary...........................................................................................................425 References........................................................................................................ 426
Pandemic preparedness is a topic of periodic and great concern, as are pandemics themselves. Often, the public’s awareness of these events is raised to a heightened level, although the same is not necessarily true for the public’s overall preparedness. Enormous sums have been spent on such preparedness-literally billions of dollars in the United States alone between 2004 and 2010. However, many would say that our preparedness for these infectious disease events has changed little from a decade earlier. This state of affairs is attributed to a combination of several effects: the nature of pandemics as compared with other crises; the unique preparedness requirements of pandemics; and the somewhat challenging and burdensome pandemic preparedness planning activities. This chapter discusses each of these effects, along with activities during and after a pandemic, and the way ahead in pandemic preparedness planning (Figure 17.1).
