Health agencies again sound alarm on flu pandemic

Describing an influenza pandemic as "inevitable," officials from the Centers for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health and Health and Human Services Department warned the Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Wednesday about the dangers of such an occurrence and described their efforts to develop diagnostic tests, therapies and vaccines in the event of an outbreak.

Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and ranking member Arlen Specter, R-Pa., expressed concern that failure to increase funding to the agencies might slow preparations for a pandemic. Specter said Congress' failure to make such funding a priority is "totally unacceptable."

In 2005, President Bush requested $7.1 billion in emergency supplemental funding for pandemic preparations, of which $6.1 billion has been appropriated. Harkin and Specter also lamented that public attention to a potential pandemic had waned.

Much of the hearing focused on H5N1 avian influenza, which has the potential to become a devastating pandemic due to its high mortality rate -- more than 50 percent -- and humans' lack of immunity to the disease.

"It's alarming we're not protected from it and it's alarming because it's so deadly," said CDC Director Julie Gerberding. To date, 269 human cases of avian flu have occurred in 10 countries, and 163 patients have died. The panelists stressed, however, that they cannot know if or when the avian flu will become a pandemic, or an epidemic that spreads over a large area.

The panelists, including National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, described their efforts to create a vaccine based on the currently circulating strain of the virus and to develop the infrastructure to quickly produce large quantities of a new vaccine once a pandemic strain has been identified.

The panelists said that research to develop a universal flu vaccine, which in theory could protect against all strains of influenza, is also progressing.

The agencies are working toward a goal of providing the entire population of the United States with a vaccine within six months of a pandemic outbreak, as well as to provide antivirals for 25 percent of the population.

The CDC is also working with states and local governments to help them prepare for their roles in the event of an outbreak, according to Gerberding. During the hearing, Harkin floated an idea of giving all Americans free flu shots, in part to create a platform for future vaccine distribution on a massive scale.