November 2, 2005 - 1:38PM US President George Bush has outlined a $US7.1 billion ($A9.5 billion) strategy to prepare for a possible worldwide super-flu outbreak, aiming to overhaul the vaccine industry so eventually every American could be inoculated within six months of a pandemic beginning. Such a huge change would take years to implement - Bush's goal is 2010 - and his plan drew immediate fire from critics who said it wouldn't provide enough protection in the meantime. States, too, got an unpleasant surprise, ordered to purchase millions of doses of an anti-flu drug with their own money. The long-awaited strategy also stresses expanded attempts to detect and contain the next super-flu before it reaches the United States, with particular attention to parts of Asia that are influenza incubators - a global focus that flu specialists have insisted the government adopt. "Early detection is our first line of defence," Bush said in a speech today at the National Institutes of Health. He called on other countries to admit when super-flu strains occur within their borders. "No nation can afford to ignore this threat," he said. At the same time, Bush sought to reassure a public jittery over the spread of bird flu, called H5N1, which has killed at least 62 people in Asia since 2003 and caused the death or destruction of tens of millions of birds. There is no evidence that a human pandemic, of H5N1 or any other super-strain, is about to start, Bush said repeatedly. Still, there have been three flu pandemics in the last century and the world is overdue for another. Concern is growing that the bird flu could provide the spark if it one day mutates so that it can spread easily from person to person. "Our country has been given fair warning of this danger to our homeland, and time to prepare," Bush said. Topping Bush's strategy: -$US1.2 billion ($A1.6 billion) to stockpile enough vaccine against the current H5N1 flu strain to protect 20 million Americans, the estimated number of health workers and other first-responders involved in a pandemic. -$US1 billion ($A1.4 billion) for the drugs Tamiflu and Relenza, which can treat and, in some cases, prevent flu infection. Enough to treat 44 million people and prevent infection in six million others is headed for the federal stockpile. States were told to buy 31 million treatment courses, but Bush is funding only a quarter of the states' anticipated bill. -$US2.8 billion ($A3.8 billion) to speed production of pandemic vaccines - including better-matched strains - by learning to manufacture them in easier-to-handle cell cultures, instead of today's slow method that relies on millions of chicken eggs. -$US251 million ($A337.7 million) for international preparations, including improving early-warning systems to spot human infections with novel flu strains. -$US100 million ($A134.5 million) for state preparations, including determining how to deliver stockpiled medicines directly to patients. -$US56 million ($A75.3 million) to test poultry and wild birds for H5N1 or other novel flu strains entering the US bird population. -A call for Congress to provide liability protection for makers of a pandemic vaccine, which unlike shots against the regular winter flu would be experimental, largely untested. Bush's announcement came after his administration was battered by criticism over its lethargic response to Hurricane Katrina. Public health specialists, briefed on the strategy but awaiting details, called it a good start. "Clearly this is the number one public health issue on the radar screen," said Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota, who advises the government on infectious disease threats.
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