Simulation shows Europe prepared for flu outbreak

By Jeremy Smith
Thu Mar 30, 10:54 AM ET

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A European exercise to simulate an influenza pandemic showed the countries involved were reasonably prepared but exposed flaws in the system used to report national health crises, officials said on Thursday.

"Europe is reasonably well prepared for a pandemic, and probably better prepared than it was 18 months ago," John Simpson, director for emergency preparedness at Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA), told a news briefing.

He was presenting a report on the huge simulation, billed as Europe's first pandemic influenza exercise, that the HPA carried out across the EU's 25 countries in late November at the request of the European Commission, which also participated.
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Under the simulation, no vaccines were available until the second of two waves of the attack, which had a death rate of 1.5 percent. Antiviral stocks were set at November 2005 levels.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060330/sc_nm/europe_influenza_dc_2

--p!

Superpower. Sure, they can protect their people; but can they blow up as many as we can? I think NOT. We're NUMBER ONE!