Signal recognition during the emergence of pandemic influenza type A/H1N1: a commercial disease intelligence unit’s perspective

Some public health crises become threats to national security. In April 2009, the Veratect Corporation provided a series of escalated warnings to key members of the international public health community regarding unusual respiratory disease reporting activity in Mexico, later referred to as the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. The warning sequence of the H1N1 influenza pandemic highlighted potential complementarity between that of an intelligence-inspired warning culture vs. a risk-averse, forensically oriented response culture favored by traditional public health practitioners. Both are required to address the current range of difficult-to-predict public health crises that become a threat to national security.