# 4721
Lisa Schnirring, staff writer for CIDRAP, has their first report on the ICEID 2010 conference going on in Atlanta this week.
I’ve just reproduced the opening paragraphs, follow the link to read it in its entirety. And check back to CIDRAP’s Latest News Page for additional updates and stories.
Experts air H1N1 lessons, other disease challenges
Lisa Schnirring
Staff Writer
Jul 12, 2010 – ATLANTA (CIDRAP News) – The vital role of preparedness, from diagnostic testing to stockpiling of antiviral medications, was one of the most important lessons from assessments of the world's response to the H1N1 influenza pandemic, the World Health Organization's (WHO's) top flu expert told an international infectious diseases conference yesterday.
Keiji Fukuda, MD, special influenza adviser to WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, said the revised International Health Regulations (IHRs), adopted by the World Health Assembly after the 2004 reemergence of the H5N1 avian influenza virus, pushed countries to be more open when the first novel H1N1 cases emerged last spring in California and Mexico.
"It set a critical precedent and set a tone that was important for the whole global response," Fukuda said in a keynote address on lessons of the H1N1 pandemic at the opening session of the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases (ICEID).
