Pandemic Influenza: Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions and Behavior Changes that May Save Lives

The outbreak of novel A/H1N1 influenza in early 2009, eventually resulting in the declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organization, raises the spectre of past pandemics and their devastating effects in terms both of economic consequences and, more important, human mortality. In the United States, individual states are responsible for pandemic influenza preparedness planning. A systematic review of state preparedness plans conducted prior to the 2009 outbreak reveals that a critical component of successful plans – namely, nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) related to hygiene, social distancing, and technology – are incorporated to a far lesser degree than is necessary to ensure that the United States can successfully meet the challenge of pandemic influenza. (January 2011)