Abstract
This year marks the 15th anniversary of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Canada and the 100th anniversary of the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic. These, and other recent public health events, provide an opportunity for us to review and reflect on the evolution of Canada's public health emergency response over the past 15 years-from SARS, to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza, to Ebola virus and Zika virus disease. Key lessons have been learned and milestones achieved that have shaped and sharpened our response approach and structures. While SARS was a wake-up-call to strengthen infection prevention and control capacity in health care settings and led to the formation of the Public Health Agency of Canada, it also strengthened our Federal/Provincial/Territorial (FPT) senior-level governance and led to agreements for pan-Canadian mutual aid and infectious disease information sharing. As well, our collective public health laboratory capacity has been strengthened through ongoing response and sharing of advanced diagnostics and research. As we move forward, it will be important to explore the design of scalable or modular emergency response strategies and structures that are socio-culturally appropriate and employ evidence-based strategic risk communications that continue to be critical, especially given the volume and spread of misinformation. With the current global reality, we must recognize that public health threats that go unchecked anywhere in the world have the potential to very rapidly become a public health threat in Canada. We need to build, maintain and share our best public health practices globally, for we neglect these at our peril.
Highlights
In 2018, we mark both the 100th anniversary of the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic and the 15th anniversary of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Canada
Rather the declaration was based on what was not known about clusters of microcephaly, Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and other neurological defects associated in time and place with outbreaks of Zika infection reported from Brazil and retrospectively from French Polynesia [6]
We can never be too prepared and ongoing work is still needed, much has improved in Canada’s public health emergency preparedness and response capacity over the past 15 years. This began with the response to SARS, and has developed with each successive public health emergency since that time
Summary
In 2018, we mark both the 100th anniversary of the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic and the 15th anniversary of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Canada This is a good opportunity to reflect on Canada’s experience with public health emergency preparedness and response in recent decades. Rather the declaration was based on what was not known about clusters of microcephaly, Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and other neurological defects associated in time and place with outbreaks of Zika infection reported from Brazil and retrospectively from French Polynesia [6] This precautionary and anticipatory approach was essential to galvanizing the international response to investigate and conduct surveillance and rapid research needed to inform an effective public health response.
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