Global triage of global resources needed

doi:10.1136/bmj.39220.443889.3A

BMJ 2007;334:1071 (26 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39220.443889.3A

Letters

Preparedness for pandemic flu

Global triage of global resources needed

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Planning for triage of scarce resources in the face of a flupandemic is not simply an abstract moral dilemma¹: it remainsunsolved at the highest levels of international planning. Europeremains two to three years away from a state of preparednessfor a flu pandemic.² Previous modelling has shown that a massiveand focused use of antivirals and vaccines in places where flumay originate—probably developing countries—is vitalto mitigating a pandemic.³ This strategy presupposes that availablelimited resources will be distributed fairly in developing countries.This presumption is currently unrealistic.

A recent analysis of pandemic preparedness plans worldwide notedthree goals of pharmaceutical interventions: reduction of morbidityand mortality (21 plans), continued maintenance of essentialservices (13 plans), and minimisation of social and economicimpacts (13 plans).⁴ The overarching goal for the early pandemicphases in the World Health Organization's plan is to coordinatemaximum international efforts . . . [Full text of this article]

Daniel J Barnett, instructor¹, Saad B Omer, assistant scientist¹, David P Fidler, professor of law², Ran D Balicer, researcher³, James G Hodge, Jr, associate professor⁴

¹ Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA, ² Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA, ³ Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Ramat-Gan, Israel 52394, ⁴ Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

dbarnett@jhsph.edu