Virtual Municipal Pandemic Preparedness Planning for local level Emergency Management and Disaster Response

*Background: STOP AI, funded by USAID, works to minimize animal health threats and the risk that HPAI becomes a human pandemic. STOP AI builds developing countries' capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to HPAI and other zoonotic disease outbreaks, and thereby minimize the resultant economic and nutritional losses. STOP AI has developed a “virtual” municipal pandemic preparedness planning model, based on an internet planning platform developed by MSH that has been field tested in Peru with plans for use in other LAC region countries. Most LAC countries have well developed national-level pandemic plans. The “virtual” pandemic planning program facilitates municipal leadership teams to develop pandemic emergency response plans. This includes an intersectoral emergency management and disaster response toolkit.

*Methods: Virtual dissemination model development in Peru uses the internet to reach municipal-level planning teams in isolated areas. After a successful field test in Peru, region-wide distribution of the model is planned for the fall of 2009. As a result of this program, municipal-level plans will be developed that fill gaps in pandemic preparedness and response planning. The plan guides municipalities to organize and manage local pandemic emergencies, to understand pandemic impacts, to allocate scarce resources to meet local health and food security needs, and to use non-pharmaceutical interventions to mitigate pandemic impacts. A plan must address sector specific impacts and response roles, including protection and / or recovery of livelihoods, continuity of local government functions, emergency operations planning, and critical infrastructure. The virtual e-platform approach allows municipalities in diverse locations to access the program and develop their own response plans. The results of this effort will support dissemination to other countries with challenging geography.