Denmark is preparing for potential future pandemic health threats with a new generic plan that covers all forms of infectious diseases.
In its first national pandemic plan since the 2013 influenza plan, the Danish Health Authority addresses not only potential influenza threats such as bird flu but also any significant health threats, including possible outbreaks of Mpox, Warburg virus, Zika virus, or Ebola virus.
“In 2013, everyone thought influenza would be the biggest pandemic threat. But now we have more knowledge, so our new plan is generic and includes all major health threats in regard to infectious diseases,” Kirstine Moll Harboe, head of the department at the Danish Health Authority, told Euractiv, adding that a general plan is in line with recommendations from the WHO and the ECDC.
“We learned a lot from COVID-19. For example, there is a huge need for information and coordination between the different players during a major outbreak. This coordination needs to be consolidated, and we need to be transparent and open about the background to our decisions, which also needs to involve and be based on multiple competencies,” Kirstine Moll Harboe said.
It will be five years since the first Danish patient was diagnosed with COVID-19 on 27 February 2020.
No fixed plan
According to the Danish Health Authority, the first intense years of COVID-19’s spread showed that Danish regions and municipalities were good at adapting to and dealing with the sick.
“But even though we gained a lot of experience from COVID-19, we also know that it is not possible to make a fixed plan for the next disease outbreak. A new disease may behave very differently and affect different target groups,” Moll Harboe said.
Therefore, the new general strategy is not a comprehensive plan for what every player should do in detail, but a plan for how they should closely and jointly manage and coordinate their work, she explained.
Although the approach is flexible, the plan includes central principles. For example, infection control measures should be proportionate to the risk. This means that decision-makers must consider the negative consequences in relation to the size of the risk.
Another fundamental element is the cautionary principle. This does not mean doing nothing, but it could actually mean having to act.
Moll Harboe explained: “The cautionary principle means that the less information you have, the more cautious you have to be and that your actions should be well thought through and based on the specific situation and the disease outbreak.”
Also highlighted in the plan is the need to pay special attention to vulnerable groups, that is, the elderly, pregnant women, children or marginalised people.
The Ministry of Interior Health has the overall political responsibility for health emergency preparedness. The Danish Health Authority coordinates different actors and works closely with the regions to get an overview of central capacities.
The new strategy is also complemented by more specific guidelines, such as regional emergency and preparedness plans.
Evaluations of the past
In January 2021, a parliamentary commission investigation evaluated the Danish response to COVID-19 in Spring 2020, remarking that the Prime Minister’s office was deeply involved early on.
The commission recommended the establishment of a permanent council to implement epidemic and pandemic measures, a standing external healthcare advisory panel, and greater transparency regarding healthcare advice given to the government in a crisis.
Later, in June 2022, the Danish National Audit Office said in a report on the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic that, at the time, the Ministry of Health and the regions had not ensured enough hospital preparedness to cope with a pandemic like COVID-19.
Even if some regions worked out plans to increase capacity and arranged beds for all admitted COVID-19 patients, there were also gaps in the ability to expand care capacity in intensive care units and to secure access to protective equipment, the Audit Office stated.
These shortcomings have now been taken into account in the Danish health authority’s new plan, the agency told Euractiv.
[Edited by Vasiliki Angouridi, Brian Maguire]
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',
'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');
fbq('init', '307743630704587');
fbq('track', 'PageView');