# 2091
Reuters now has more detail on the statements made by Dr. Julie Gerberding at the Kuala Lumpur meeting.
This is just a snippet, follow the link for the entire article.
World not fully prepared for flu pandemic - expert
21 Jun 2008 12:48:40 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Tan Ee Lyn
KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 (Reuters) - The world is far from being fully prepared for a flu pandemic, a leading U.S. infectious diseases expert said on Saturday, warning there were big gaps in surveillance and basic knowledge.
Experts have long warned that the H5N1 bird flu virus could trigger the next pandemic and kill millions of people if it becomes easily transmissible among humans.
"We are a long way from being fully prepared. We do not have a vaccine that will provide universal protection. We don't have surveillance in every country. We don't have control of the virus in animal reservoirs," said Julie Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"We have huge gaps in our basic understanding of influenza and what will be the trigger that allows it to move onto its next host and potentially become more transmissible to humans," she told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur on the sidelines of an infectious diseases conference.
A grim assessment, but not an unreasonable one.
While the world has made advances in pandemic preparedness, we most certainly are ill-prepared to deal with a severe, category 5, pandemic.
Complacency is our biggest enemy.
Which is why this blog, and many others, bang the gong loudly and often.
