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Among the measures it plans to carry out is the publication of guides for helping people react should an outbreak occur. Measures include ensuring good hand-washing to prevent the spread of germs. If people fall ill, they should not go to work. If they fall into one of the high-risk categories - the elderly, the asthmatic, the immuno-suppressed - they should seek medical attention.
The point is that you cannot totally rely on drugs or the promise of a vaccine to lessen the risk, said Dr Theresa Tam, of the Immunisation and Respiratory Infections Division at the Public Health Agency of Canada. Behaviour has an enormous effect on the direction of an epidemic.
As to identifying who should be the first to get anti-viral treatments, the Canadians have asked a group of ethicists to help them draw up the plans.
As Tam told The Observer: 'We involved them, because these are not decisions that are purely scientific.'
On the other hand, the world has only limited time before that great flu epidemic erupts.
As every scientist, epidemiologist and doctor has told The Observer over the past few days, it is not a matter of if H5N1 erupts upon the world; it is simply a matter of when. We have time, but not a great deal, and should make the very most of it while we can. Politicians therefore need to pursue their plans with urgency, as Professor Oxford warned.
'This is the time to act. It's like an insurance policy; you don't wait until you've been burgled before you buy proper cover for your contents.'
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