U.S. EFFORTS TO PREVENT THE SPREAD OF H1N1

The United States Government is very concerned about the recent cases of novel H1N1 influenza that have been identified in the United States and around the world.

Any influenza is serious. Over 35,000 people in the U.S. and about 500,000 people worldwide die each year because of regular seasonal flu. It's uncertain at this time how severe this novel H1NI outbreak will be in terms of illness and death compared with other influenza viruses.

As of May 13, three people have died from the H1N1 virus in the U.S. President Obama is thus monitoring the situation very closely and has supported a very active, progressive, and coordinated response by his Administration.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is partnering with state and local health departments to manage travelers who appear ill and are denied boarding by airlines or who are identified at ports of entry and are referred to the CDC-staffed U.S. Quarantine Station.

All travelers are encouraged to stay at home and postpone travel if they feel ill.

The steps the U.S. Government has taken are consistent with World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. The WHO is not recommending travel restrictions related to the outbreak of the influenza A (H1N1) virus, and according to its posted travel guidance, though WHO may recommend exit screenings, it currently does "not believe entry and exit screenings would work to reduce the spread of this disease."

The CDC has exit screening plans drafted and will work with industry and Federal partners to approve and implement them in the event that it is determined that exit screening is necessary.

Today, global travel is commonplace and large numbers of people move around the world for business and leisure.

Limiting travel and imposing travel restrictions would have very little effect on stopping the virus from spreading, but would be highly disruptive to the global community.

Aggressive social isolation regimes applied on a large scale are disruptive and carry their own public health risks. These risks must be weighed in light of the risk posed by the H1N1 virus.

This outbreak certainly poses the potential to be at least as serious as seasonal flu, if not more so, especially given the fact that there currently is no vaccine against this virus and there is no immunity against this virus in the population.

In order to slow the spread of the H1N1 virus, in the U.S. there have been hundreds of school closings and dozens of isolations of confirmed cases and voluntary quarantines of those immediately exposed to these confirmed cases.

The U.S. has taken a number of concrete measures to prevent the further spread of the novel H1N1 virus:

We have put into place a very comprehensive disease tracking and mitigation effort. USAID is giving US$5 million to the WHO and the Pan American Health Organization to help detect and contain the disease in Mexico. The United States immediately mobilized its resources to support Mexico by providing antiviral medicines to treat sick patients, diagnostics kits to detect cases early, and personnel who have been deployed to help with logistics, and field epidemiological and clinical investigation.

Many of our embassies and consulates have disseminated messages directing overseas Americans to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) web site (http://www.cdc.gov) for tips on staying healthy and preventing the spread of H1N1. The State Department's internet site, travel.state.gov, prominently features an H1N1 influenza page providing up-to-date flu-related information, including CDC-approved measures for preventing influenza infection.

In general, the United States is the largest overall donor for international pandemic influenza assistance, with a cumulative pledge of $949 million, accounting for 30.9 percent of the overall international donor pledges of $3.07 billion.

As the largest donor, the United States is engaged at the highest levels in efforts to avert the possibility of a human influenza pandemic. The United States has consistently supported international efforts in more than 100 nations and jurisdictions, focused on three areas: preparedness and communication; surveillance and detection; and response and containment.