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Report says pandemic flu bigger threat than terrorism in U.K.

Infection Control Monitor, August 15, 2008

Pandemic flu, not terrorism, is the most serious risk to the public in the United Kingdom, according to Britain’s first ever national threat assessment.

The report, published August 8, looks at the likely dangers posed by a number of threats including terrorism, climate change, extreme weather, and pandemic disease, according to the Associated Press (AP). The threat assessment was part of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s overhaul of homeland security strategy.

Britain’s Cabinet Office, which drafted the document, said a potential influenza pandemic poses the most imminent danger over the next five years. An outbreak could kill as many as 750,000 British citizens and it could take several months to develop adequate vaccines against a particular strain of flu, according to previous government assessments.

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