Elsevier

Health Policy

Volume 92, Issue 1, September 2009, Pages 21-26
Health Policy

Evaluation of national pandemic management policies—A hazard analysis of critical control points approach

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2009.01.006Get rights and content

Abstract

Analyses of pandemic preparedness policies revealed weaknesses in control systems of European nations. This reinforces the need to support countries in their endeavours to prevent and contain pandemics. A Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) was applied to a generic plan to identify weaknesses in pandemic management policies, in order to develop recommendations for improving national pandemic management systems. Policy components considered in our analysis are command and control, early case detection and disease surveillance, and community containment management. The main critical areas identified in national pandemic control were: communication systems among all institutions and levels involved in pandemic management, guidelines and regulations describing how key personal and institutions should operate during a pandemic, training and dissemination of information to health care personnel involved in outbreak management. The HACCP analysis highlighted the need for agreed communication structures, clear division of responsibilities and harmonised policy guidelines at all levels of pandemic management. Being prepared is the key to successfully coordinate and implement response measures when a pandemic emerges.

Section snippets

Background

Improving Europe's preparedness for pandemic influenza is one of the top priorities on the agenda of international and national institutions for communicable disease control. The European Commission along with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are supporting countries to improve their national pandemic influenza preparedness. They regularly publish and update recommendations for national pandemic control systems [1], [2] and

The HACCP technique

The National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) developed guidelines for conducting HACCPs. Seven HACCP principles to identify, evaluate and control food safety hazards were framed: (i) conduct a hazard analysis, (ii) determine the critical control points (CCPs), (iii) establish critical limits, (iv) establish monitoring procedures, (v) establish corrective actions, (vi) establish verification procedures and (vii) establish record-keeping and documentation

Results

The HACCP results are summarised according to the pandemic management components.

Discussion

In this study a HACCP approach was used to analyse European pandemic management policies at national level in order to identify hazards and related critical control points. The following major critical control points within generic national pandemic control systems were detected: (i) communication systems among all institutions and levels involved in pandemic management, (ii) guidelines and regulations describing how key personal and institutions should operate during a pandemic, (iii) training

Conclusion

The HACCP showed that especially rapid and focused communication at administrative level, guidelines to deal with pandemic specific situations and strategies to cope with limited resources are vital for all analysed components. Once again it became evident, that being prepared is the only way to successfully co-ordinate and implement response measures when a pandemic emerges.

Acknowledgements

This work was conducted as part of “SARSControl: Effective and acceptable strategies for the control of SARS and new emerging infections in China and Europe”, a European Commission project funded within the Sixth Framework Programme, Thematic Priority Scientific Support to Policies, contract number: SP22-CT-2004-003824.

We are grateful to Dounia Bitar from InVS/France for her constructive comments on the flowcharts and to Nolene Sheppard for textual revision of the paper.

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