Tooele County Health Department's Pandemic Flu Response Plan has a strong mission and several goals, including:

• to lessen the impact of an influenza pandemic on the residents of Tooele  County by:
• providing a guide for the Tooele  County Health Department and partnering agencies for detection and response to a pandemic influenza event
• The goals of the Plan are to minimize serious illness and deaths, and to minimize societal disruption and economic loss

Influenza is a highly contagious viral disease, with epidemics of influenza affecting hundreds of thousands of people nearly every year. The ability for influenza viruses to “drift,” or frequently make slight structural changes over time, results in the appearance of the different strains that circulate among the human population. Vaccines are developed to match the strains expected to circulate each year.

In contrast to the gradual drift process, the influenza virus can also change suddenly and dramatically, through “shift.” Shift results in a new, or “novel” influenza virus to which very few people, if any, are immune. The potential for a pandemic exists if the novel virus has the ability to spread easily from person to person and can cause serious illness.