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Pandemic Planning and Response

• What is a Pandemic?
  A pandemic is a global disease outbreak.
  A flu pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus emerges for which people have little or no immunity and for which there is no vaccine. The disease spreads easily person-to-person, causes serious illness and often death, and can sweep across the country and the world in very short time.
  PandemicFlu.gov is an excellent site for a thorough yet basic introduction to understanding Influenza Pandemic.
• You need to understand these two concepts:
  -- Although the 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak has reached WHO Phase 6, we are very fortunate that to date the Severity Index is only a Category 1.
  WHO Pandemic Phases
  CDC Pandemic Severity Index & Response Strategies