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With winter in sight, there's renewed concern over flu.

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If the famous H5N1 virus, originally from birds, comes to mutate and transmit from human to human,

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it will result in a worldwide pandemic with heavy consequences.

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You have to notice and realize that hundreds of thousands of human lives

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and a huge disturbance of the whole society has occurred even in a mild pandemic.

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And we don't know whether the next one will be a mild or a more severe one.

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Nobody really knows. And nobody really knows the timing.

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Preparation is therefore essential to avoid such a catastrophic scenario.

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As a result, Europe has created the European Centre for Disease Control in Stockholm, the ECDC.

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Its mission? To be better prepared for future epidemics in order to react more quickly and more efficiently.

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How? By using a host of information provided by already well-established field networks.

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Example, in Utrecht, with the European Influenza Surveillance Scheme, in charge of monitoring seasonal flu.

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The main advantage of the current surveillance system is that it's community-based.

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That means you're sampling from patients, just the general population,

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patients who go and see their general practitioner.

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So if there is flu out there, a pandemic virus, there's a high probability

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that if it's circulating in the population, that we will catch it.

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Surveillance is fine, but it's even better if it's matched with a rapid response system.

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This is Luxembourg, where a system called EWRS, Early Warning and Response System,

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connects the member states, the European Commission and the ECDC.

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Its first mission is the rapid exchange of information on transmissible diseases.

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Its second one is to offer an effective reaction capacity.

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But for an efficient response in the case of a pandemic, measures on the ground must be well-coordinated.

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The classical example of that is people saying,

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oh well, we should shut borders, which is an idea which is intuitive,

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but we know will not stop influenza.

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But we've had countries who are pointing out that if you shut the border,

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let's say for example around Luxembourg, Luxembourg health services will stop

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because 45% of the people who work in the hospitals in Luxembourg come from other countries.

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But what about the cure of the pandemic if it develops in Europe?

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In order to counter the pandemic's rapid spread,

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access to vaccines and antivirals must be facilitated.

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The European Medicines Agency wants these drugs to become available much more quickly.

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We've had discussions with our experts

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so that all of the interested parties are working together

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to take the products forward in a speedy way.

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But one of the most important issues is to make sure

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that we have safe, efficacious and good quality products on the market.

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By putting together all these instruments and making them interact,

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Europe is getting ready.

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Only a coordinated global response will be capable of fighting a pandemic

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since viruses know no borders.