The Federal Government says Australia is as well prepared as humanly possible for an influenza pandemic.

The World Health Organisation has been monitoring the spread of bird flu and says the world is closer than ever to a pandemic, with a 10 per cent chance of an outbreak.

Australia´s chief medical officer, John Horvath, says the threat is being taken seriously and the Government has a detailed national action plan.

"The overriding principle in a pandemic situation if it were to occur is to minimise the mortality and the morbidity of the Australian public," Professor Horvath said.

"That´s the overriding principle of the advice we would be giving to Government."

Health Minister Tony Abbott says the Government has a number of preparatory measures in place, including the stockpiling of anti-virals and the release today of 35,000 information kits to front-line health professionals.

He says an outbreak is possible and while Australians should not panic, they should be concerned and prepared.

"If there was a pandemic outbreak and we didn磘 have preparations in place, we could expect within the first three months 2.6 million people seeking medical attention, 58,000 hospitalisations and 13,000 deaths," he said.

"So we磖e talking about a very serious predicament should it happen."

On the 6 June 2005 the Australian Health Minister, Mr Tony Abbott, released the latest detailed management plan to guide Australia´s response to any global outbreak of a pandemic strain of influenza.The Government was taking the threat seriously, Mr Abbott said, but he admitted that nothing could completely protect Australia from the effects of a deadly new flu strain.The aim of the document is to provide a detailed guide for the Australian response to a pandemic influenza threat. The plan targets the wide range of people who will be involved in planning and responding to an influenza pandemic: health planners, public and clinical health care providers, border workers, state and territory health departments, essential service providers, and those involved in the media and communications. You can download the report from here in full (150 pages) or read about it on the Government site for Bird Flu here. The 2005 UK Pandemic plan can also be viewed here.