Tuesday, May 12, 2009
WHO working on a severity scale to accompany pandemic alert phases
Written by: Helen Branswell, Medical Reporter,
May. 11, 2009
excerpt:
The CDC hasn't yet determined where the H1N1 outbreak lies on that scale, said Dr. Francisco Averhoff, chief of quarantine and border health services in the division of global migration and quarantine.
D. In addition to the planning recommendations using WHO pandemic phases, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a planning document that outlines a Pandemic Severity Index (PSI), characterizing the possible severity of a pandemic. The index uses case fatality ratio as the critical driver for categorizing the severity of a pandemic. In this index, pandemics will be assigned to one of five discrete categories of increasing severity (Category 1 to Category 5).
The interim guidance in which this index was submitted provides planning recommendations for specific community mitigation interventions that may be used for a given level of pandemic severity. Planning considerations included in this document are based on the possible severity of the event.
www.scemd.org/Plans/MassCasualtyPlan/13-Annex%202%20-%20Pandemic%20Influenza.pdf
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