PRESS
RELEASE

PAHO Proposes Wide Coverage of Vaccinations to Tackle Flu Epidemic

Washington, DC, December 5, 2003 (PAHO)—The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) believes it is essential to widen as much as possible the coverage of vaccinations to meet the challenge of ever-stronger and virulent strains of influenza virus.

The latest edition of PAHO’s EID Weekly Update says that the use of vaccines and antivirals are key to efforts to reduce the global cost of an epidemic of influenza, - a respiratory disease common called "the flu.”

The news bulletin’s mission is to inform about the efforts to prevent and control emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in the Americas.

Another publication, Influenza Pandemic: Preparation in the Western Hemisphere, also reports on the need to improve the control of flu outbreaks in closed spaces, where the influenza virus grows at great speeds. This publication reports about the actions that must be taken to deal with the 2003-2004 flu epidemic.

One of the mayor public health concerns is the sudden and pronounced transformation of the flu virus, which has resulted in mutations and has forced the development of new vaccines every year.

This year, the spread of the flu virus began earlier than usual in Canada and the United States, affecting especially children and the elderly. Estimates as to the cost of dealing with the flu epidemic in the United States range between $71 billion and $167 billion.

Records of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that this fall has marked the fiercest beginning to any national flu season in at more than a quarter century. This week alone, flu complications have been blamed for the death of at least 11 children as of Dec. 5 in Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Flu season usually occurs between October and April and usually peaks in January or February.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that between 5 percent and 15 percent of a country’s population is affected during by a flu or influenza pandemic.

The flu is one of the respiratory diseases that most affects human beings. Even though it’s often depicted as a benign illness, it’s really a serious disease that kills thousands of persons every year. Some groups of people have risk factors that become more complicated during a flu outbreak:

• Those over 60 years of age, those who suffer from pulmonary problems (asthma, emphysema, smoking).
• People with heart and kidney problems.
• People with high blood pressure and diabetes.
The flu virus is transmitted through the atmosphere, especially through coughing and sneezing. Any person can become affected by simply being near or next to a flu-ridden person.
A document published during the latest meeting of PAHO’s Directing Council in September – a meeting that brings together all of the health ministers of the Americas – highlighted seven key points to confront a new flu epidemic. They are:
• Improve the quality and coverage of monitoring influenza.
• Develop national programs to confront a flu epidemic
• Analyze and study flu epidemics to figure out the repercussions and economic burden.
• Promote the transfer of technology for the manufacture of vaccines in the different countries.
• Improve the coverage of anti-flu vaccination.
• Improve the control of outbreaks in closed spaces.

Recent episodes of animal strains causing disease in humans support experts' views that a new pandemic is inevitable," said the report submitted to the Directing Council meeting.

"Epidemiological projects project that another pandemic is most likely to result in between 57 million and 132 million medical consultations, between 1 million and 2.3 million hospitalizations, and between 280,000 to 650,000 deaths in less than two years - in the industrialized countries alone." A new plan of action could help limit the outbreak and the number of deaths, the report noted.

In the past, influenza pandemics or epidemics have occurred, on average, three to four times every century when new viral strains emerged by antigenic shift and were transmitted from person to person.

During the 20th Century, epidemics of influenza have affected different segments of the world's population in different ways and impacts. Thus:

• During the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu epidemic more than 500,000 people in the United States and between 20 and 40 million died worldwide - more than killed in World War I -- of influenza-related complications.
• The 1957-1958 Asian Flu was associated with an estimated 100,000 deaths and affected between 10 percent and 35 percent of the world population.
• The 1968-1969 Hong Kong Flu killed an estimated 700,000 people worldwide, including an estimated 34,000 deaths in the United States alone.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) was established in 1902 and is the world’s oldest public health organization. PAHO works with all the countries of the Americas to improve the health and quality of life of its people. PAHO serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization (WHO).

PAHO Member States today include all 35 countries in the Americas. France, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are Participating States. Portugal and Spain are Observer States. Puerto Rico is an Associate Member.