Planning for and responding to pandemic influenza emergencies: it’s time to listen to, prioritize and privilege Aboriginal perspectives

Abstract

Australia’s Indigenous peoples account for 3% of the country’s population yet continue to experience disproportionately higher rates of mortality and hospitalization for many infectious diseases.1 The 2009 influenza pandemic had an inequitable impact on Indigenous peoples in Australia,2 New Zealand,3 the Americas and the Pacific.4 Genuine and tangible actions that include Indigenous peoples in the planning and response for pandemic influenza is overdue. This paper will identify some of the strategies to incorporate the perspectives of Australia’s Indigenous peoples (hereafter Aboriginal) in planning and responding to infectious disease emergencies.

Keywords

• aboriginal
• infectious disease emergency
• aboriginal worldviews