# 3154
http://www.pandemicpreparedness.org/
Today I’m happy to help welcome the newly launched H2P (Humanitarian Pandemic Preparedness) Initiative website which is geared towards promoting community & district-level pandemic flu preparedness and response in developing countries.
And as you can imagine, that’s a pretty big job.
The Website is still partially under construction (give them your email and they will notify as more pages come online), but there is already a wealth of information available there.
Some of the resources already online include:
- Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions for use During a Human Influenza Pandemic (CDC and USAID)
- Pandemic influenza prevention and mitigation in low resource communities (WHO)
- Reducing excess mortality from common illnesses during an influenza pandemic (WHO)
- How Serious is the Current Pandemic Risk? English Version Spanish Version
- How is Pandemic Influenza Different? English Version Spanish Version
- What Can We Learn from Previous Pandemics? English Version Spanish Version
- What Interventions Are Available? English Version Spanish Version
- Five Useful Things to Know about the 2009 H1N1 Outbreak English Version Spanish Version
There is a lot more to see there, so by all means, visit the website. I’m looking forward to exploring it more, myself.
I will be putting a permalink to it in my sidebar later tonight.
This Initiative comes through the hard work of a number of NGO’s and partner organizations, including USAID, IFRC, CORE Group (including American Red Cross, CARE, & Save the Children), AED, InterAction, & several UN agencies, including WHO, WFP, & UN OCHA:
Here is how H2P describes their mission:
The Humanitarian Pandemic Preparedness Initiative
Coordinated by the Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Humanitarian Pandemic Preparedness (H2P) Initiative is a three year USAID-funded program (October 2007 through September 2010) aiming to build a chain of health and disaster management tools and practices as an indispensable prerequisite to generating a fully prepared and deployable (‘off-the-shelf’) capacity of community first-responders during an influenza pandemic.
These essential front-liners will provide the most rapid, coordinated and effective response possible, designed to limit morbidity and mortality, safeguard livelihoods and maintain societal cohesion and integrity. This will be accomplished by underpinning – and, as necessary, driving – community-level planning/mechanisms for organizing, coordinating and delivering an effective humanitarian response in countries deemed to be most vulnerable to a pandemic influenza outbreak.
USAID is funding several agencies to reduce the risk of excess mortality from a pandemic in at least 20 most at risk countries. There are three principal objectives:
1. To support the development of influenza pandemic preparedness plans and protocols of the humanitarian sector in the areas of health, food security and livelihoods in designated countries.
2. To strengthen the in-country capacities of staff and volunteers of significant humanitarian and civil society organizations to carry out the influenza pandemic preparedness plans and protocols.
3. To ensure functional coordination between global, national, district and community level stakeholders, including the UN system, in the preparedness and response of the humanitarian sector.
