The California Department of Health Services has introduced its response plan for the State in the event of a major influenza outbreak. The draft Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plan is an instruction model for agencies across California to follow if a highly contagious influenza outbreak occurs. The plan has been presented for public comment, and feedback on the plan is being requested by the California Department of Health Services.

"California has in place the essential building blocks to protect the public from a pandemic," said State Public Health Officer Dr. Mark Horton, in a press release issued by the California Department of Health Services. "However, everyone—individuals, communities, private industry and all levels of government—must become actively engaged to prepare for a pandemic. While we cannot prevent a pandemic, with proper preparation we can lessen its impact."

The draft Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plan points to California's emergency response structure as a foundation for response coordination in case of an outbreak. The plan details various measures for agency response. It indicates how laboratories, hospitals, and clinic surveillance will monitor for early detection.

The plan also outlines medical and non-medical ways to help control the spread of a pandemic influenza outbreak, as well as plans for vaccine and antiviral stockpiling and distribution. Additionally, the plan covers how to deal with the overcrowding of hospitals and clinics if a wide-scale pandemic influenza were to strike.

The World Health Organization reported in January 2006 that several human cases of avian flu have now been reported outside of Asia, in parts of Eastern Europe. A small but slowly increasing number of fatalities in humans from the avian flu in the last three years have recently raised concerns over the possibility of a large-scale influenza outbreak occurring in the near future.

According to the World Health Organization, the bird flu strain known as Influenza A (H5N1) is now classified as a pandemic alert, which is one level below a full-scale pandemic. The pandemic alert status of the virus means that there are recorded cases of the avian flu virus known as H5N1 being transmitted from birds to humans. However, humans are not contagious to other humans, and cannot spread the avian flu strain H5N1.

The concern is that the avian flu H5N1 virus could mutate, and then spread through human-to-human contact. The avian flu H5N1 has a 50 percent mortality rate, and an outbreak could be deadly. If the avian flu were to become contagious through human-to-human contact, which it is not at this time, the World Health Organization would raise the status of the outbreak to the level of pandemic.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services recently allocated $100 million in funding for states' preparation for an influenza outbreak. According to a press release from the United States Department of Health and Human Services, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said, "Pandemics happen globally but must be managed at the state and local level, and these funds will help communities meet that responsibility." He further stated, "Preparation works and it can save lives. We have the opportunity to become the first generation in history to prepare for a pandemic."