S&T Committee (Lords): Pandemic Influenza

31 October 2005

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.