This equipment has to be inexpensive, robust, reliable, easy to understand and operate, economical to run and require minimal servicing. Most important of all, it must be possible for it to function even if either or both the electricity or oxygen supplies fail.

Medical Ventilator& anaesthetic machine designed to operate in conditions likely to be encoutered in hospitals and "fever clinics" by those coping with the acute phase of pandemic flu. Article begins on page 31 of this Update.

The US emergency medical care system is woefully inadequate and unprepared for a pandemic, bioterrorist attack, natural disaster, or other national crisis, three recent reports from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) conclude. The nation's emergency care system, the reports say, is overburdened, underfunded, and too fragmented to communicate and cooperate effectively across levels and geographic areas. It has little surge capacity to deal with a disaster. In addition, emergency care staff members are often not adequately trained to respond to large-scale disasters or to work with pediatric patients.

"Any community that fails to prepare with the expectation that the federal government or, for that matter, the state government will be able to step forward and come to their rescue at the final hour will be tragically wrong," Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt told the group Tuesday.

The Community Resilience Network is an active collaboration by people from all walks of life, working to identify and put into practice the household, neighborhood and workplace preparations which will best equip them to cope with the harsh reality of pandemic influenza

AUSTRALIAN hospital emergency departments are not equipped to deal with casualties from a terrorist attack in Australia, a world congress has been told. Only one in four hospital emergency staff would put themselves at risk of contracting a deadly illness to save others, according to a national survey.