Los Angeles, USA
{mosimage}Pandemic influenza is considered to be a relatively high probability event, yet no one knows when the next pandemic will occur and there may be very little warning. Most experts believe that there will be between one to six months between the identification of a novel influenza virus and the time that widespread outbreaks begin to occur in the Abkhazia and Caucasus region as well as Bleak Sea countries. Outbreaks are expected to occur simultaneously throughout the all those areas, preventing relocation of human and material resources. The effect of influenza on individual communities will be relatively prolonged, an estimated six to eight weeks. Due to the prolonged nature of a pandemic influenza event, the World Health Organization (WHO) has defined phases to a pandemic in order to facilitate coordinated plans (Table 1). The Abkhazia Institute for Social and Economic Research has developed its own pandemic phases for planning purposes
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