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Consider planning for bird flu

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  • Consider planning for bird flu

    Consider planning for bird flu

    Cranes are the oldest living bird species on the planet. For 60 million years their funky dances and eerie calls have haunted the flyways of the world.

    On St. Patrick's Day, far from the world of green beer, my family was at the Platte River in central Nebraska gazing in awe at the spectacle of the annual crane migration.

    It's estimated that 600,000 cranes migrate along this central flyway each spring and fall. The land and sky were cluttered with cranes.

    These migrations are much anticipated and heralded. The Nebraska press is replete with crane stories.

    This year, however, some of the stories had a tone of low-grade dread. When the cranes return in the fall contagious disease experts expect the bird flu to come with them.

    Avian influenza is a virus carried in the intestines of wild birds. Contagious, it can be passed on to domestic birds such as ducks, geese and chickens.


    And a subtype of Influenza A known as H5N1 can jump from birds to humans. Over the past several years more than 100 people worldwide have died from H5N1.

    In a world with billions of people, 100 deaths do not even register statistically. Among public health officials, however, H5N1 in humans is ominous in that no vaccine exists to combat it. If the virus mutates so that it can pass easily from human to human, pandemic flu will flash around the globe.

    This has happened with some regularity throughout history. In the past century, pandemic influenza outbreaks occurred in 1918, 1957, and 1968.


    The 1918 pandemic was the worst, killing an estimated 40 million to 50 million people worldwide including over 600,000 in the U.S.
    My point here is not to be a herald of doom, but to offer a cautionary word for preparation.

    Under the capable leadership of Dr. Adrienne LeBailly, director of the Larimer County Department of Health and Environment, a Larimer County pandemic influenza preparedness and response plan is being developed. Expect to hear more in the months ahead.

    While the community develops its plans, I encourage you to begin thinking about your own planning. Consider whether your own family is prepared. If we learned anything from Hurricane Katrina it is that the most effective first response should be local and personal.

    A severe pandemic flu in the U.S. means that every community will be in crisis mode. Nobody will be available from outside Northern Colorado to come to our rescue. And, county and city government resources will be meager. The best recourse is for you to take care of yourself and your family.

    As well, make sure your business crisis plan is up-to-date, includes pandemic flu preparedness, and is understood by employees.
    In certain circumstances, some types of businesses would be shut down.


    Will you be able to continue operations? Do you have the means to weather three months of diminished or no business? Great resources for your business and your family can be found at www.larimer.org/health/cd/pandemic_flu.htm.

    With the return of migratory birds this fall, the U.S. will probably see H5N1 in the wild bird population. That in itself is no reason for panic. Only when the virus can jump efficiently from person to person will we have a huge problem.

    But if that happens, it will be too late to prepare. Perhaps this crisis will not come soon, or be as severe as feared, but in this case it's truly better to be safe than sorry.


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