Europe would be better with a generic, rather than disease-specific, pandemic response plan

We have written several stories about the debate among scientists regarding the best vaccine approach to bioterrorism:

• In onecamp there those who favor “one-bug-one-drug” approach. They argue that developing disease-specific vaccines will be more effective in treating specific diseases such as bubonic plague, ricin poisoning, and more.
• In the other camp are those who believe that a more effective approach would be what is called “broad spectrum technology,” aiming to boost the body’s innate, or general, immunity. These scientists argue that we must prepare for the day when terrorists would create designer pathogens which, by definition, would not be known before they are released. Disease-specific vaccine cannot be developed to counter a yet-unknown disease. The only solution is the find a way to bolster to body’s general immunity to withstand anything thrown at it by terrorists. These scientists also argue that bolstering the body’s innate immunity will help counter the known bioterror agents as well.

BioPrepWatch’s Ted Purlain writes that a study about gaps in pandemic preparedness has revealed disease-specific plans utilized by most European countries could cost precious time and resources. “Countries and organizations invest enormous resources in developing plans for specific diseases, which may not even present a threat in the future,” the authors of the study, representing public health institutions in Denmark, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Finland said. “Having a generic PPP [pandemic preparedness plan] in place would save resources.”

Rather than planning for specific diseases, public health scientists, modelers, and policy experts for nine EU countries said, a generic plan that can be tailored to specific incidents should be created. “New pathogens, originating either naturally or from bioterrorism, will continue to emerge and cause new public health emergencies,” Ahmed Syed wrote this week in Global Public Health.

Purlain writes that the generic plan would use traditional, basic infection-control measures, including quarantine and contact tracing, to create a core preparedness and response program that could be modified as the emerging disease becomes more understood.

The participants in the recently released study, which followed two written interviews with 38 experts from 22 European countries and face-to-face meetings, covered 13 policy areas. The participants in the study “were national experts in the field of infectious diseases who were working at senior levels nationally and internationally, and represented their country on the Advisory Forum of the European Centre for Disease Control [ECDC],” Syed told EHTF News.