Pandemic Influenza Workshop

Multilateral Perspectives on Preparedness, Response Planning, and Areas for Cooperation

Military officers, government representatives, and foreign policy experts from the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea gathered for a one-day workshop in Tokyo, Japan, on September 27, 2006, to discuss the potential threat of a pandemic influenza in the Asia-Pacific region. The event, Pandemic Influenza Workshop: Multilateral Perspectives on Preparedness, Response Planning, and Areas for Cooperation, was co-sponsored by the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, the Institute of World Studies at Takushoku University, and the United States Pacific Command (PACOM).

 

In order to effectively combat an influenza virus with pandemic potential, ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines and antiviral medications, and reduce the economic and social impact of an outbreak, governments and their partners should prepare influenza pandemic plans at the national, regional, and international level, as well as test their planning efforts with simulations and tabletop exercises. Seeing this need, IFPA organized the pandemic influenza workshop to draw together government officials, military planners, and leading experts in the fields of public health, infectious disease, and biodefense policy to discuss this emerging crisis and address areas for improved and enhanced cooperation in disaster response planning.

 

Policy makers and military experts who came together at the workshop shared national strategies and military response plans and explored options for augmenting a coordinated regional response to a possible avian flu outbreak in the Asia-Pacific theatre. Participants also discussed means to leverage existing partnerships, enhance interoperability, and integrate planning efforts in order to minimize the health and economic impact, including related security challenges and social implications, of a pandemic influenza contingency, and by extension, other natural disaster, pandemic disease, or biohazard events.