Guidelines, Planning Guides, and Checklists

Protecting yourself and others from respiratory illnesses like pandemic flu starts with good planning. CDC has updated pre-pandemic planning guidelines for community mitigation strategies, including NPIs, that can be used to plan and prepare for a flu pandemic.

The updated 2017 Guidelines explain why NPIs should be used during a flu pandemic, summarize key lessons learned from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic response, describe new pandemic planning and assessment tools, and provide the latest scientific findings on the use of NPIs.

Pre-pandemic NPI Planning Guides also are available to help public health departments and community settings, such as schools and workplaces, put the updated Guidelines into action as part of their NPI pre-pandemic planning.

Below are links to the 2017 Community Mitigation Guidelines, NPI Planning Guides, and pandemic flu checklists that can help you create an evidence-based strategy to prevent pandemic flu in your community.

Please visit, Educational Materials, to find additional pandemic flu NPI communication, education, and training materials for various audiences and community settings.

The 2017 Guidelines replace the 2007 Interim Pre-pandemic Planning Guidance: Community Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Mitigation in the United States — Early, Targeted, Layered Use of Nonpharmaceutical Interventions, which can be viewed at: https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/11425.