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"<p>Disease specific plans utilized by most European countries could  cost precious time and resources, a study about gaps in pandemic preparedness  has revealed.<br />\n<br />\n&ldquo;Countries and organisations invest enormous resources in  developing plans for specific diseases, which may not even present a threat in  the future,&rdquo; the authors of the study, representing public health institutions  in Denmark, the UK, Germany and Finland said. &ldquo;Having a generic PPP [pandemic  preparedness plan] in place would save resources.&rdquo;<br />\n<br />\nRather than planning  for specific diseases, public health scientists, modellers and policy experts  for nine EU countries said, a generic plan that can be tailored to specific  incidents should be created.<br />\n<br />\n&ldquo;New pathogens, originating either naturally  or from bioterrorism, will continue to emerge and cause new public health  emergencies,&rdquo; Ahmed Syed wrote this week in Global Public Health.<br />\n<br />\nThe  so-called generic plan would use traditional, basic infection-control measures,  including quarantine and contact tracing, to create a core preparedness and  response program that could be modified as the emerging disease becomes more  understood.<br />\n<br />\nThe participants in the recently released study, which  followed two written interviews with 38 experts from 22 European countries and  face-to-face meetings, covered 13 policy areas.&nbsp; The participants in the  study &ldquo;were national experts in the field of infectious diseases who were  working at senior levels nationally and internationally, and represented their  country on the Advisory Forum of the European Centre for Disease Control  [ECDC],&rdquo; Syed told EHTF News.</p>"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://bioprepwatch.com/stories/510506548-europe-needs-generic-response-plan-to-pandemic-threats-expert-says>