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Obama declares H1N1 national emergency
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President Barack Obama took additional steps to protect the nation from pandemic influenza A H1N1 this weekend, granting Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius the power to bypass certain standard federal requirements in order to contain the pandemic.
“I have exercised my authority to declare a national emergency in order to be prepared in the event of a rapid increase in illness across the nation that may overburden health care resources,” Obama wrote in a letter to Congress.
The act enables health care facilities to create separate, off-site EDs to keep patients with H1N1 from spreading the virus and authorizes Sebelius to temporarily wave or modify certain Medicare, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance program requirements for treating these patients. Under Obama’s proclamation, health authorities may also tweak the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy Rule when responding to H1N1.
More than 20,000 hospitalizations and more than 1,000 deaths have occurred from H1N1 since the pandemic began in April, according to Thomas Friedan, MD, MPH, director of the CDC. He estimated about 16 million doses of H1N1 vaccine were available for shipping during a press briefing on Friday.
“Vaccine production is much less predictable then we wish. We are nowhere near where we thought we’d be by now,” Friedan said. “As public health professionals, vaccination is our strongest tool. Not having enough of it is frustrating to all of us.”
Additional doses are expected in the coming weeks, Friedan said, with the CDC projecting 50 million doses to be available by mid-November and 150 million in December.
In the meantime, the FDA announced emergency use authorization Friday for intravenous peramivir (BioCryst), an investigational antiviral drug, for use in the following adult and pediatric patients:
- Those who have not responded to either oral or inhaled antiviral therapy.
- When drug delivery by another route (enteral or inhaled) is not expected to be dependable or feasible.
- When the clinician determines that IV therapy is appropriate due to other circumstances (adults only).
Peramivir is the only IV-administered influenza treatment currently available for H1N1 infections. Emergency use authorization for the product will last until the emergency declaration is terminated or until the FDA revokes the privilege.