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Preparing for an Influenza Pandemic: Mental Health Considerations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

Paul C. Perrin ,
O. Lee McCabe ,
George S. Everly Jr.  and
Jonathan M. Links
Paul C. Perrin*
Affiliation:
PhD Candidate, Department of International Health, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
O. Lee McCabe
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Department of Mental Health, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
George S. Everly Jr.
Affiliation:
Associate, Center for Public Health Preparedness, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Jonathan M. Links
Affiliation:
Professor and Director, Center for Public Health Preparedness, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
*
Department of International HealthThe Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health615 North Wolfe StreetBaltimore, Maryland 21205USA E-mail: pperrin@jhsph.edu
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Abstract

There is a common belief that an influenza pandemic not only is inevitable, but that it is imminent. It is further believed by some, and dramatized by a 2006 made-for-television-movie, that such a pandemic will herald an end to life as we know it. Are such claims hyperboles, or does a pandemic represent the most significant threat to public health in the new millennium? Any potential effects of a disease on a population are mediated not only through the pathophysiological mechanisms of the disease itself, but through the psychological and behavioral reactions that such a disease might engender. It is the purpose of this paper to explore the potential psychological and behavioral reactions that may accompany an influenza pandemic.

Type
Comprehensive Review
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , June 2009 , pp. 223 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2009

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