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Pandemic Influenza Program Benefit: The development of a comprehensive Pandemic Influenza response plan enables your organization to prepare appropriate personnel and resources when faced with an event that could potentially cripple the organization due to personnel shortages. The forecast for infected populations currently ranges from 40% to 90%. Description: An anomaly that spreads on a worldwide scale and infects a large proportion of the human population. In contrast to the regular seasonal epidemics of influenza, these pandemics occur irregularly, with the 1918 Spanish flu, the most serious in recent history. Pandemics can cause high levels of mortality, with the Spanish influenza being responsible for the deaths of over 50 million people. There have been about three influenza pandemics in each century for the last 300 years. The most recent ones were the Asian flu in 1957 and the Hong Kong Flu in 1968. Influenza pandemics occur when a new strain of the influenza virus is transmitted to humans from another animal species. Species that are thought to be important in the emergence of new human strains are pigs, chickens and ducks. These novel strains are unaffected by any immunity people may have to older strains of human influenza and can therefore spread extremely rapidly, infecting very large scales. Influenza A viruses can occasionally be transmitted from wild birds to other species causing outbreaks in domestic poultry and may give rise to human influenza pandemics. The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that there is a substantial risk of influenza pandemic within the next few years. One of the strongest candidates is a highly pathogenic variation of the H5N1 subtype of Influenza A virus. As of 2006, pre-pandemic influenza vaccines are being developed against the most likely suspects, which include H5N1, H7N1, and H9N2. Past Performance:
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