Silver Spring, MD - The American Nurses Association (ANA) applauds President Bush's leadership in developing a national strategy for pandemic influenza and offers its assistance to the administration to further define nursing's role in the response plan.
On Nov. 1, President Bush unveiled a strategy for combating the threat of an avian influenza pandemic that calls for an emergency $7.1 billion spending measure needed to stockpile medicine reserves and to develop a new vaccine. The plan contains three goals and strategies: 1) to detect outbreaks of influenza in an attempt to avert the spread of a possible pandemic; 2) to stockpile vaccines and antiviral medications and improve the ability of vaccine manufacturers to develop and produce new vaccines; and 3) to bolster local, state and federal readiness planning and preparedness.
While no cases of H5N1 avian influenza have been detected in the United States, more than 60 people in Asia have died from it, and 200 million birds have been killed in an attempt to prevent its spread. Also, although there is no evidence that the current virus is transmitted through human contact, the concern is that it could quickly mutate into a fast-spreading global outbreak involving many deaths.
ANA recognizes that this plan can only succeed with sufficient financial and human resources maintained over a sustained period of time, and remains committed to working with Congress to secure necessary funding.
ANA further urges the administration and Congress to continue to invest in the public health infrastructure to ensure a strong response not only to pandemic influenza, but also to the many other health threats that our nation faces on a daily basis.
ANA representatives attended the president's unveiling of the plan at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. The association is further examining the full influenza pandemic report released Nov. 2 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). ANA President Barbara Blakeney, MS, RN, will communicate to HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt the association's desire to work together to prepare this country to address the threat of a possible pandemic.