Thursday, May 25, 2006 Mr. Chairman and members of the
Committee, I am honored to be here today to describe for you how
the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is working to
improve the nation's preparedness for a potential human
influenza pandemic. Thank you for the invitation to testify on
this issue, which is one of our highest priorities at HHS.
Strategy and Threat Assessment The President's FY 2007 budget
also requests more than $350 million for important ongoing
pandemic influenza activities at HHS such as safeguarding the
Nation's food supply (FDA), global disease surveillance (CDC),
and accelerating the development of vaccines, drugs, and
diagnostics (NIH). Pandemics are not new. There were three in
the 20th century, the worst of which was the Spanish flu
epidemic in 1918-1919 that is estimated to have killed over one
half million people in the U.S. and 50 million worldwide. While
we are focusing today on the impact of the H5N1 avian flu virus
from a strain currently circulating in birds in