How Prepared Are We For Avian Influenza?
The federal government is working on measures to mitigate the potential impact including looking at vaccines, therapies, and other strategies. Robert Hopkins, Jr, MD, medical director, National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID), provides some insights on our preparation now and lessons learned from the pandemic.
When it comes to public health, and the idea of being prepared for a potential outbreak or pandemic, there are some objective measures that can be put into place including stockpiling vaccines and therapies, having emergency plans, and carrying out surveillance measures to name a few.
The federal government, for example, is working to make sure there are vaccines and therapies available to the general public if they are needed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is looking to prepare by developing candidate vaccine viruses (CVV) for avian influenza (H5). “CVVs are used to produce influenza vaccines. Having a CVV that protects against H5 bird flu in humans is an important step for being prepared for an H5 vaccination program, if one is needed,” the federal agency writes on its site.1
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) overees the National Pre-pandemic Influenza Vaccine Stockpile (NPIVS). And the stockpile has enough raw materials to develop vaccine doses to immunize critical care workers and at-risk populations in the early phases of a needed response. And they also have enough materials to make millions of additional doses within weeks.2
And separately there are a handful of vaccine candidates in development. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced last week it was going to provide approximately $590 million to Moderna to accelerate the development of mRNA-based pandemic influenza vaccines and enhance mRNA platform capabilities so that the US is better prepared to respond to other emerging infectious diseases.
And in terms of therapies, the Strategic National Stockpile has millions of treatment courses of antivirals including, oseltamivir (Tamiflu), which is expected to work against avian influenza.2
Of course, learning from history so as not to repeat it is another important adage. And certainly, fresh off the COVID-19 pandemic, there are many things we can glean when considering a potential avian influenza outbreak.
“I think we've learned a lot of important lessons about what we've done well and what we've done not so well in responding to a pandemic,” Hopkins said. “There were tremendous investments from the federal government, from states, from others, to help us respond, to grow our public health workforce, to reach out to communities to get vaccine into arms, without regard for insurance. So we learned an awful lot. Unfortunately, a lot of that spending, that money that was invested is gone. So in a lot of ways, we've learned, but we don't have the resources to respond as effectively now.”
He also mentions the need for the federal government’s continued vigilance to monitor the ongoing situation. “We know that this can be a serious infection and can cause death…This needs to be on our radar,” Hopkins said. “Ongoing public health surveillance, ongoing biosecurity around cattle farms, and around our poultry operations is really critical.”
This is the first in a short series on preparedness, check back in tomorrow and Thursday as different authors tackle biocontainment and how immunomics may help in preparing for future pandemics.
