NAPAPI: North American Countries Join Forces to Prepare for
Pandemics 2 April 2012 - A new North American Plan for Animal
and Pandemic Influenza supports a faster and more coordinated
response to influenza pandemics in North America. President
Barack Obama, Mexican President Felipe Calderon, and Canadian
Prime Minister Stephen Harper released the plan jointly during
the North American Leaders Summit as a way to enhance the health
and safety of residents of all three nations. Known as NAPAPI,
the plan provides, for the first time, a framework for the
health, agriculture, security, and foreign affairs sectors of
all three countries to collaborate on pandemic preparedness and
response. It lays the ground work for mutual assistance during a
response, such as sharing personnel as well as vaccines, drugs,
diagnostic tests, known collectively as medical countermeasures.
The plan builds on the 2007 North American Plan for Avian and
Pandemic Influenza and is the culmination of efforts begun at
the 2009 North American