title: Framing risk in pandemic influenza policy and control.
abstract: This article explores differing understandings of 'risk' in relation to pandemic influenza policy and control. After a preliminary overview of methodological and practical problems in risk analysis, ways in which risk was framed and managed in three historical cases were examined. The interdependence between scientific empiricism and political decision-making led to the mismanagement of the 1976 swine influenza scare in the USA. The 2004 H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in Thailand, on the other hand, was undermined by questions of national economic interest and concerns over global health security. Finally, the recent global emergency of pandemic influenza H1N1 in 2009 demonstrated the difficulties of risk management under a context of pre-established perceptions about the characteristics and inevitability of a pandemic. Following the analysis of these cases, a conceptual framework is presented to illustrate ways in which changing relationships between risk assessment, risk perception and risk management can result in differing policy strategies.
authors: Communicable Diseases Policy Research Group (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. trseetoh@gmail.com
authors: Theresa
authors: T
authors: Seetoh
authors: Marco
authors: M
authors: Liverani
authors: Richard
authors: R
authors: Coker
mesh_terms: D003140:Communicable Disease Control; D003657:Decision Making; D006801:Humans; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011057:Politics; D011640:Public Policy; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012308:Risk Management