[Ethical aspects of a pandemic influenza management and conclusions for health policy. An overview].

Infectious diseases are among the major global health threats. Although associated with these diseases there are vast ethical challenges, ethics has more focused on other health related issues--e.g., associated with rare diseases, embryo research, genetic diagnosis. Nowadays we are facing a possible influenza pandemic caused by a new human influenza virus subtype. This article presents issues and ethical challenges of the pandemic threat. The authors argue that it is necessary to consider ethical implications of pandemic influenza preparedness early on and to include ethical reasoning when deciding on the measures for the pandemic management.