S&T Committee (Lords): Pandemic Influenza

In October 2005 the Royal Society responded to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee's call for evidence for the inquiry into UK's preparations for a potential outbreak of pandemic influenza. The Society's response highlighted that it is essential the UK Government does not focus entirely on stopping a pandemic at source through the use of antivirals, but instead considers a broad range of interventions. Investment should be made into further research on modelling based scenarios and developing new vaccine production capability. The response also discusses the use of antivirals in a prophylactic basis and the desire for the availability of a rapid and inexpensive diagnostic test.