Interview: Leading Influenza Expert Offers Advice on Swine Flu Outbreak
Alan Hampson OAM, is a World Health Organisation expert Advisor on influenza, and was until recently, Deputy Director and operational head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza. He is also an influenza advisor to the Australian Government, a Member of the Australian National Influenza Pandemic Action Committee and Convenor of the Australian Influenza Specialist Group.
How is Australia preparing for Swine Influenza?
The Australian government has been doing a great deal for quite some time to deal with influenza, especially since the avian flu outbreak in 1997.
The Swine Influenza has up until recently only been spreading between swines. But it has now gone on to person-to-person transmission which is the big worry about this influenza. I would suggest it shouldn’t be called Swine Influenza anymore because it now has person-to-person transmission potential (Avian flu still maintains this name because there’s no evidence of person-to-person transmission yet).
The details of the virus so far are still sketchy.
The disease control in the US has gone to Mexico to help them evaluate the situation and I know there is some evidence that the virus is present in other places particularly in the USA and the concern is it might spread more widely.
Why are we so worried about influenza outbreaks?
We are always worried about new strains of influenza which are significantly different from those that have been in the population previously because they have the potential to spread far more rapidly than the older strains that have been in the population for some time.
If they happen to cause severe disease of course it will have an impact not only on individuals but the country as a whole, especially on the health system. That’s why you plan for the eventuality (of influenza) because of the prospect the H5 virus might turn into a virus that can spread from person-to-person.
Do you think the general public should be worried?
It’s not really a good idea for individual to stockpile things like masks and anti-flu drugs. The government has a stockpile which will be used judiciously in the event of any event of major outbreak of influenza in Australia and I think that is the most appropriate way to go.
That anti-viral stockpile would be used as an interim measure so we have vaccines available to protect people. The current vaccine contains a virus which is distantly related to the virus that is circulated in Mexico and the Americas. It’s not likely to give very significant protection against this new virus, so it’s a matter of making a new vaccine if the virus does continue to pose a threat of international spread. But on the other hand people being vaccinated with a virus even distantly related to this new virus may have some benefit – it may help to prime the immune system so they may respond better in the event they do become infected.
