UK govt announces new pandemic plan

The UK's Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, has published a new plan to increase preparedness and better protect the public against a possible influenza pandemic. A new clinical countermeasures strategy has been developed to offer increased protection against the effects of a pandemic if a "worst case scenario" happened, the Department of Health said.

Already, the UK government has signed agreements with two drugmakers to supply enough pandemic specific vaccine for the entire population once the strain has been identified, Mr Johnson explained.

The new countermeasures include plans to: