Ambassador: David Mikhail
1. Which aspects of Pandemic Preparedness is most pertinent to your country and why?
Spain is a well developed European country and therefore would not have any of the problems in a developing country with healthcare (i.e. safe water, nutrition, etc.). The “International SOS” gives Spain a relatively good score in terms of pandemic preparedness based on the localized population, low medical services strain, low public health restrictions and high media coverage. Overall, Spain has an H1N1 impact score of 2/10.
Overall, there is little chance of certain outbreaks coming to Spain and the main ones that we should worry about are those brought over from other countries, such as the Swine flu from Mexico last year. Therefore the main aspect for pandemic preparedness for Spain would be to prevent spread of the disease within the country, such as promoting safe sex to prevent HIV transmission. This is important because of the high costs on Spain’s healthcare system of a new infection, so minimizing the pandemic is top priority for the country. Next is to have enough vaccines or treatments for the whole population (i.e. Tamiflu for flu outbreaks). This is important for the speed by which we can clear the country of the disease, since each sustained infection can lead to many more depending on the mode of transmission.
2. How would you as the WHO Ambassador of your country address this issue?
As WHO ambassador for Spain, I would be sure to keep an eye on endemic diseases in various areas of the world which have a fear of becoming pandemic. For these infectious diseases, surveillance is going to be the most important strategy to prevent initial infection of someone in the Spanish population and prevent spread within the country. Surveillance will include screening, reporting and monitoring of all cases to ensure early warning and minimize incidence. Secondly, I think I would emphasize hospital infection control measures at all times to prevent spread of anything that does enter the country. Finally, there are countermeasures which I would take to prepare for mass production and/or acquisition of any treatments or vaccines needed. If there are vaccines available, this would be the way to go and make sure there is sufficient storage for a large proportion of the population to obtain herd immunity, and located in the proper locations near major population centers (i.e. Madrid and Barcelona).
3. How has your country addressed Pandemics in the past? What would you have done differently?
Whenever one thinks of the country of Spain and pandemics, we immediately think back to the Spanish Flu of 1918. Between that extremely fatal flu almost a century ago and the latest pandemic (swine flu, 2009) we get a good idea of Spain’s take on handling pandemics. In 1918, the flu was actually named after them because of their choice to properly broadcast the incidence, prevalence and fatal consequences of this flu.
In 2009, with the swine flu, they had a much more systematic response. First, since they knew the flu was coming from abroad, they made everyone flying in from a country with confirmed cases (mainly Canada, USA, France, etc.) to fill out a form on their flight about their experiences and they put many medical teams on all airports to handle suspected cases. They made travel to Mexico only allowed if absolutely necessary. Finally, they prepared millions of doses of Tamiflu just in case they needed to treat massive amounts of people.
4. Which countries do you see yourself becoming allies or rivals with? Why?
I can definitely see myself becoming allies with countries that border our country so that we can battle any possible pandemics as a team and prevent unnecessary spread between countries. I think it would be beneficial to make allies with the whole EU, but also the countries of northern Africa if possible (i.e. Morocco, Libya, Algeria). Obviously, making connections with the UK and the USA would also be beneficial, especially for drug treatments.