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Source: http://www.cullmantimes.com/local/lo...113085249.html
Published: April 23, 2009 08:55 am print this story comment on this story
Officials to hold flu pandemic exercise Friday
By Tiffany Green
The Alabama Department of Public Health along with the Cullman County Health Department and many other local agencies are partnering to practice for a flu pandemic Friday across Cullman County.
Sondra Nassetta, with the Alabama Department of Public Health, does not want residents to be alarmed if they see police officers or health officials wearing face mask.
?We don?t want to scare anybody,? she said. ?But we want to treat this as real as possible.?
The exercise will take place from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. Many agencies in Cullman will be involved including the health department, the Cullman City Police Office, the Cullman County Sheriff?s Office, coroner Gary Murphree, Cullman Regional Medical Center and others.
?We want to simulate as much as we can and try to make it as real as we can,? said Mike Tyler with the Alabama Department of public health
The West Point Middle School lunchroom will be the site of a pretend flu shot clinic. Crystal Page, health department clinic supervisor, will be there ready to give the flu shots in case of an emergency.
There will be a scenario set up at the school with students and others involved. They will have someone faint and someone being disruptive with officers holding them back. This will all be part of the test.
?We need to see how you (emergency workers) would react and what steps you would take,? Tyler said.
?It is going to be a good practice session to see how we would do in a real emergency,? Nassetta said.
Cullman County coroner Gary Murphree said he has plans in place for a real emergency. In case of mass casualties, Murphree said he would be overloaded and need assistance.
?We have a place on our mass casualty plan to put bodies,? he said. ?It would take beyond 10 to 12 people per day to be a problem and need something more than the funeral homes.?
Murphree said the local funeral homes could hold up to 12 bodies but beyond that there would need to be another place. There is no morgue in Cullman County, although a few of the funeral homes have small ones of there own. Murphree has no help and works alone, so he would not be able travel across the county to pronounce the dead.
?If we had a situation where people were dying too fast for the funeral home to handle, we have a refrigerated truck and access to a building,? he said.
Murphree said depending on where a person dies depends on what procedures are taken. Generally, if a person dies at the hospital, Murphree does not have to go to the body, the hospital takes care of it. A decision would need to be made about where the coroner?s authority begins and ends in case of a mass casualty situation.
Police chief Kenny Culpepper said he and his staff would help the coroner if needed.
The last known mass casualty case from the Spanish flu was in 1918 when somewhere between 20 and 40 million people died worldwide. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history.
Murphree said he remembers 1972 as a deadly year in Cullman.
?In February of 1972, there were 30 something flu deaths in Cullman County,? Murphree said.
Nassetta said it is hard to determine the exact number of deaths from the flu. Many times someone may die from complication associated with the flu, so on the death record it will not say name flu as the cause of death.
Nassetta said it has been a few years since they have seen a bad flu season, but wants to keep people alerted to how bad it could be.
?Hopefully we will learn a lot from this,? she said.
? NOTE: The date of the exercise was incorrectly listed as Thursday, April 23 in the Thursday edition of the Times.
? Tiffany Green can be reached by e-mail at tgreen@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 221.
Published: April 23, 2009 08:55 am print this story comment on this story
Officials to hold flu pandemic exercise Friday
By Tiffany Green
The Alabama Department of Public Health along with the Cullman County Health Department and many other local agencies are partnering to practice for a flu pandemic Friday across Cullman County.
Sondra Nassetta, with the Alabama Department of Public Health, does not want residents to be alarmed if they see police officers or health officials wearing face mask.
?We don?t want to scare anybody,? she said. ?But we want to treat this as real as possible.?
The exercise will take place from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. Many agencies in Cullman will be involved including the health department, the Cullman City Police Office, the Cullman County Sheriff?s Office, coroner Gary Murphree, Cullman Regional Medical Center and others.
?We want to simulate as much as we can and try to make it as real as we can,? said Mike Tyler with the Alabama Department of public health
The West Point Middle School lunchroom will be the site of a pretend flu shot clinic. Crystal Page, health department clinic supervisor, will be there ready to give the flu shots in case of an emergency.
There will be a scenario set up at the school with students and others involved. They will have someone faint and someone being disruptive with officers holding them back. This will all be part of the test.
?We need to see how you (emergency workers) would react and what steps you would take,? Tyler said.
?It is going to be a good practice session to see how we would do in a real emergency,? Nassetta said.
Cullman County coroner Gary Murphree said he has plans in place for a real emergency. In case of mass casualties, Murphree said he would be overloaded and need assistance.
?We have a place on our mass casualty plan to put bodies,? he said. ?It would take beyond 10 to 12 people per day to be a problem and need something more than the funeral homes.?
Murphree said the local funeral homes could hold up to 12 bodies but beyond that there would need to be another place. There is no morgue in Cullman County, although a few of the funeral homes have small ones of there own. Murphree has no help and works alone, so he would not be able travel across the county to pronounce the dead.
?If we had a situation where people were dying too fast for the funeral home to handle, we have a refrigerated truck and access to a building,? he said.
Murphree said depending on where a person dies depends on what procedures are taken. Generally, if a person dies at the hospital, Murphree does not have to go to the body, the hospital takes care of it. A decision would need to be made about where the coroner?s authority begins and ends in case of a mass casualty situation.
Police chief Kenny Culpepper said he and his staff would help the coroner if needed.
The last known mass casualty case from the Spanish flu was in 1918 when somewhere between 20 and 40 million people died worldwide. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history.
Murphree said he remembers 1972 as a deadly year in Cullman.
?In February of 1972, there were 30 something flu deaths in Cullman County,? Murphree said.
Nassetta said it is hard to determine the exact number of deaths from the flu. Many times someone may die from complication associated with the flu, so on the death record it will not say name flu as the cause of death.
Nassetta said it has been a few years since they have seen a bad flu season, but wants to keep people alerted to how bad it could be.
?Hopefully we will learn a lot from this,? she said.
? NOTE: The date of the exercise was incorrectly listed as Thursday, April 23 in the Thursday edition of the Times.
? Tiffany Green can be reached by e-mail at tgreen@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 221.