On an organizational level, the AMA's Science, Medicine and Public Health staff has monitored the swine flu developments since late last week. We have communicated with the CDC throughout the week and weekend; the AMA formally offered assistance to the Obama administration and to CDC Acting Director Richard Besser, MD. As of this time, conversations with the CDC indicated that the most supportive course of action would be for us to disseminate accurate and timely outbreak information to our membership and the general public.

In response to this request, we have developed a page on the AMA's Web site devoted to swine flu and the most recent developments. Included on the page are detailed CDC guidelines for clinicians on infection control, case identification, use of respirators and antiviral medications. The page will be updated with the most recent swine flu information, including outbreak case numbers and infection control information. The page can be accessed from the AMA's home page by clicking on "Swine Flu Resources for Physicians" under "Important Messages" in the bottom right-hand corner.


The AMA's Center for Public Health Preparedness and Disaster Response (CPHPDR) convened the Health Emergency Response Team to consider various strategies and options for the AMA's response to the H1N1 swine flu outbreak. A key assumption is that the response to the outbreak will require a marathon approach, since this virus has "pandemic" potential, with the possibility of producing ongoing waves of infection.

Our role now is to be a source of timely and credible health information and clinical guidance on swine flu from the CDC. Links to other authoritative Web sites and tools will be added to the page. AMA members will be notified through e-mail about the availability of the Web page. CPHPDR staff have also contacted domestic and international agencies, including the CDC, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, the World Health Organization and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and will continue to work with the AMA Federation and other federal and private sector partners to prepare for, and respond to, this public health challenge.

The AMA's strategies on disaster medicine and public health preparedness education are implemented through its National Disaster Life Support (NDLS) Program and peer-reviewed publication, Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. Through the Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness journal, the AMA will release all pandemic influenza related articles for open access, to provide resources for medical and public health responders. Relevant articles in the journal pipeline also will be published ahead of print to ensure timely dissemination. The May 4 meeting of the NDLS Educational Consortium was to have introduced a facilitated exercise on pandemic influenza, an educational session that was presented at the 2007 Interim Meeting of the AMA House of Delegates. However, the consortium meeting has been postponed because of the outbreak, as many of the attendees are a critical part of our

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