What if a pandemic hit the U.S. — are we ready?

Dead body mountain decontamination area and over-emphasized hospital. This is a nightmare. It is a physical indicator of epidemics due to the occurrence of Ebola and other diseases in countries such as Congo. But if one of the epidemics - perhaps yellow fever, or an emerging pathogen scientist

There is no doubt. For all of our high-tech separation divisions, leading doctors, and world-class scientists, the US medical system is not yet ready to deal with the outbreak. As infectious disease expert Osterholm pointed out, global epidemics are not limited to one place or area like other natural disasters. This illness occurs simultaneously everywhere. In the event of a pandemic, even in the best hospitals beds and ventilators may run out quickly. The United States certainly developed a national epidemic strategy and welcome measures have been taken since the fear of bioterrorism since 9/11. In February, the military think tank DARPA launched a program to produce effective medicines within 60 days after identifying pathogens responsible for new epidemics. But the country has not really tested

Along with the occurrence of pandemics, the ability of each country to respond has become insufficient. Hospitals, medical staff, and medicines have been tested in an unprecedented way. "In response to the pandemic, the medical capacity of the United States has hardly improved," "There is not enough antiviral drugs, there is not enough ventilator.If you need to care about people who need to be hospitalized during a pandemic To the people who care, this is very dangerous, now we just need to be overwhelmed by the patient. "

Many individual countries have developed their own specific plans. For example, the UK has developed a reportable bird flu countermeasure strategy that defines procedures to follow after a pandemic on the island. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) is striving to better tailor the efforts and strategies of each country based on the experience of the Spanish flu in 1918 - by treating individual patients individually, I can not fight. They believe that contemporary epidemics can be defeated only by dealing with interrelated worlds rather than individual countries.