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Foreword

The impact of an influenza pandemic can be measured in a variety of ways: 50 million deaths in 1918 and 1919, hundreds of millions of individual cases of sickness in 1957, and an estimated three to four trillion dollars lost in global productivity in 2009.

By their very nature, the characteristics and outcomes of future pandemics are extremely difficult to predict. This uncertainty, however, should not be viewed as a reason to avoid planning, but rather as a motivator to emphasize the necessity of thorough, complete, and flexible plans for the inevitable pandemics of the future. By improving the readiness of your organization to operate during a pandemic, the likelihood is increased that you will be able to respond quickly and appropriately to future events.

Preparedness requires cooperation and collaboration on multiple levels. Individuals should protect themselves and their families; employers should enact policy changes to avoid the spread of illness in the workplace and in schools; healthcare providers and governmental bodies should exercise to test themselves and their communities. True preparedness requires multilevel commitments across geographic and organizational borders.

Pandemics result in urgent needs and demands, and resources will be limited. To be effective during the real event requires us to train and exercise the necessary skills and create plans before the crisis. It is imperative to develop and implement clear metrics for both individual and organizational performance.

The ultimate purpose of planning and preparing for a pandemic is twofold: (a) to decrease the morbidity and mortality rates of the illness, and (b) to improve recovery time so that economic and social activities can be resumed at their normal levels. Additionally, by actively engaging your organization in preparedness improvement, efficiency and effectiveness of normal day-to-day operations can be enhanced.

The journey of preparedness is never-ending. There is no perfect pandemic plan for any one individual, company, school, region, or government. The goal of researching, analyzing, and modifying pandemic plans is to increase the likelihood that your organization can and will respond efficiently and appropriately in the actual time of crisis.

No matter where you find yourself on your journey of preparedness, it is the hope of the endorsers, authors, and editors of this book that you find the text useful in guiding you toward an improved level of preparedness.

Judy Monroe, MD, FAAFP, is the director of the Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support (OSTLTS) and deputy director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Before her current role, she was the state health commissioner for Indiana and served in the National Health Service Corps as a family practice physician in rural Tennessee. Additionally, she has been a faculty member in the Department of Family Medicine at Indiana University and directed the Family Medicine Residency Program at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis. She served as a member of the Indiana Health Information Exchange Board of Directors, chaired the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) Preparedness Policy Committee and was president of ASTHO. During her tenure as state health commissioner for Indiana, one of her primary areas of focus was preparedness. Partnering with Purdue University, she led the Indiana Public Health System Quality Improvement Project (PHSQIP), designed to increase local public health capacity, improve infrastructure, and strengthen overall public health system performance.