dead duck brings bird flu to france
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Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation has developed a pandemic influenza draft protocol for rapid response and containment. The WHO says:
The world is now closer to another influenza pandemic than at any time since 1968, hen the last of the previous century’s three pandemics began. While influenza pandemics are infrequent events, they are rightly feared as they spread very rapidly to affect all countries and cause abrupt and significant increases in morbidity. Neither the timing nor the severity of the next pandemic can be predicted, but severe pandemics in the past have resulted in tens of millions of deaths. As the SARS experience clearly demonstrated, the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century could have significant economic and social consequences that go well beyond the absolute impact on health.
This document illustrates that strategies for dealing with some problems have to be implemented at the global, regional (supranational), national and subnational levels.