Efforts to better target pandemics would be more effective in reducing disease spread if they were set up in advance of a pandemic [5, 6, 16] , as there is a very small window of opportunity in which to act once a new emerging disease is detected. Such efforts could be strategically positioned to target emerging disease 'hotspots' [2] that are also hubs of trade and travel for surveillance and prevention [16, 27] . For influenza viruses, any future identification of a spillover of a novel strain from poultry or swine to farm workers should be rapidly followed by analyses of the travel routes out of the country where the index case was discovered. At that point, intergovernmental agencies such as WHO could best target limited resources to the poorer countries that are most likely to receive high numbers of airline travelers from the pandemic origin. These are the countries where reporting is likely to be poorest, and where a significant, undetected caseload is likely to exist by the time resources are allocated. These at-risk countries are also the least capable of affording control measures.