Flu Pandemic Preparedness

[Geoff Parcell]

Hi

I'm sure you are all aware of the developing Swine flu crisis. I am here in Chiang Mai with the CFT of the Constellation and we have been following developments with concern on the WHO website as well as in the press.

Constellation coaches have worked with IFRC on Human Flu Pandemic Preparedness and developed a self assessment framework with them. A team recently applied it in a community setting in Liberia where they added four more community specific practices. The framework is not perfect but the team here in Chiang Mai have just decided to assess their preparedness with it. We were level one or two on most practices.(see attached) Self-Assessment tool- prepare flu pandemicCFT.doc We found it very useful to discuss it together - we all have different circumstances ( some of us are traveling by air in the coming days) and realise that in the event of a pandemic we are going to rely far more on our family and neighbours than on our work colleagues.

In terms of specific actions we agreed we would each develop personal prevention plans, we take responsibility to share information with each other, our family and friends, and we will consider who is vulnerable and what steps we can take to help. With regard to information sharing we want to offer you the Flu Pandemic Preparedness framework to use in your organisation and your communities.Self-Assessment tool- prepare flu pandemic.doc If you do use it it will be great if you can give us some feedback via the Comments on how you used it, how useful you found it and what actions it prompted.

We found most of the practices very relevant, we did not have a common view of the issues at the outset, which provided a useful conversation, and it was time well spent to get us into action.

Stay well & regards

Geoff

[rebeka sultana]

Hi Geoff,

Thank you for sharing the Self Assessment tool for the pandemic preparedness. I will share this with our colleagues at UNFPA. While reading the practices I felt many of the 'answers' I do not know and we need information and sharing with others. For example where would we get drinking water or gas for cooking in case of a pandemic, these are the questions we need to discuss with our colleagues and communities.

Regards,
Rebeka

[Dr Rajesh Gopal]

Dear Friends:

Forward this to your friends who are interested in Swine Flu, and the
Globalization of Prevention Education, using DVDs

Swine Flu: We may be seeing the beginning of a pandemic of Swine Flu. We
have therefore initiated a “Just-in-Time” lecture as we have done with the
Sichuan Earthquake, Hurricane Rita, and the Tsunami. These JIT lectures
have been highly successful, as disasters make people interested. The
Tsunami lecture taught over 200,000 people, and helped to markedly reduce
the “Epidemiology of Fear” surrounding these events.
These lectures must teach as many people
as possible.
The Lecture is located at:
http://www.pitt. edu/~super1/ lecture/lec34601 /index.htm. At the site you
can download the PowerPoint file.

[Dr Rajesh Gopal]

Dear All,

Let us all be fully prepared for even the remotest possibility of swine flu in our state/country.

Best wishes,

Rajesh Gopal.

http://www.cdc. gov/swineflu/ ?s_cid=swineflu_ 001

-----Original Message-----
From: Exec Sec1 (NIH/OD)
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 9:46 AM
To: NIH-STAFF-URGENT@ LIST.NIH. GOV
Subject: Swine Flu Information for All NIH Staff

This note is to let you know that all of the HHS agencies are
collaborating and
communicating about swine flu. There is a site at CDC that our home
page is
linking to--

http://www.cdc. gov/swineflu/ ?s_cid=swineflu_ 001