Planning for a pandemic: a view from the accident and emergency department

• Published in: British journal of hospital medicine (London, England : 2005) Vol. 71; no. 2; pp. 64 - 65
• Main Authors: Mareiniss, Darren P, Hirshon, Jon Mark, Levy, Frederick
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London MA Healthcare 01-02-2010
• Subjects: Adult; Antiviral Agents - therapeutic use; Disease Outbreaks - prevention & control; Editorial; Emergency Service, Hospital; Humans; Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype; Influenza, Human - drug therapy; Influenza, Human - epidemiology; Middle Aged; Neuraminidase - therapeutic use; United States - epidemiology; Young Adult; United States
• ISSN: 1750-8460; 1759-7390
• DOI: 10.12968/hmed.2010.71.2.46475

On 11 June 2009 the World Health Organization raised the pandemic alert level to Phase 6 and declared that a global pandemic was underway. The causative pathogen, an H1N1 influenza A virus, was a triplereassortant combination of swine, avian and human influenza that initially appeared in Mexico earlier that year (Cao et al, 2009). In April 2009, the first US cases of H1N1 were confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (Jain et al, 2009). Since then, many more clinical cases have been reported to the CDC and to public health authorities.