The US government sent a strong message to the nation on Thursday that it is time to start planning and preparing for the fall flu season and the ongoing A/H1N1 flu outbreak, during the one-day H1N1 Influenza Preparedness Summit at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland.

Several senior government officials joined with delegations from 54 states, tribes and territories at the summit, to kick-off the government's nation-wide fall flu preparedness efforts.

Throughout the summit, officials laid out specific ways that states and local governments could start their planning and preparation efforts and announced new programs and resources to help state and local governments, the medical community prepare for H1N1 and the fall flu season.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said her department will make US$350 million available for states by the end of the month to help them get ready. States must apply for grants of the money and explain how it would be spent.

She said states must get ready now for a worst-case scenario with the new flu, which she says has infected at least 1 million Americans and which the World Health Organization has designated a pandemic. It has killed more than 400 people globally since it emerged in March.

"It is a lot easier to walk back as we learn more, if we learn the flu is not as severe, if it goes away," Sebelius told the meeting.

"What we can't do is wait until October and then suddenly decide that we have a very serious situation on our hands."

US President Barack Obama also urged Americans to ramp up preparations for a return of the flu in the fall, amid pledges of a huge vaccination campaign.

"I think it's clear that although we were fortunate not to see a more serious situation in the spring when we first got news of this outbreak, the potential for a significant outbreak in the fall is looming," Obama said by video link from the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy.

"We want to make sure that we are not promoting panic, but we are promoting vigilance and preparation," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2009)