Management of Pandemics

Once a pandemic has been identified, the most important stages are containment and mitigation. Containment usually occurs in the early stages of an outbreak; this is when the disease has been identified within a community and public health officials determine how to contain the disease to reduce transmissions to others in the community. During this phase, contact tracing and isolating infected individuals take place to reduce the spread of disease. Once public health officials determine that the disease can no longer be contained, the mitigation period begins.

Mitigation measures are actions that a community can undertake in order to slow the spread of viruses. Some examples of mitigation measures include: self-isolation/quarantine, proper hygiene, and social distancing. These steps are taken in order to "flatten the curve" and reduce the spread of the disease.