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Maine: Sagadahoc prescribes door-to-door pandemic primer

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  • Maine: Sagadahoc prescribes door-to-door pandemic primer

    <table cellpadding="8" width="457"><tbody><tr><td>Sagadahoc prescribes door-to-door pandemic primer</td></tr> <tr><td> Seth_Koenig@TimesRecord.Com</td></tr> <tr><td>01/04/2007</td></tr> <tr><td>BATH ? If an unfamiliar person comes knocking on your door on Jan. 20 to deliver a message about the spread of a pandemic flu, don't be alarmed.

    The Sagadahoc County Emergency Management Agency has coordinated an effort to go door-to-door throughout the county that day to provide residents with pocket guides about preparing for a pandemic flu that some scientists consider to be not a matter of "if," but "when."

    <table align="right" bgcolor="#dcdcdc" border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="6" width="190"> <tbody><tr> <td width="190"> <hr noshade="noshade" size="1"> The individual preparedness detailed in the agency's guide ranges from everyday measures such as washing hands frequently with soap and water to more long-term plans, like compiling an emergency kit with 30 days' worth of food, water, medicines and disinfectants.
    n The guide also gives contact information for local, state and regional organizations trained to handle health scares. <hr noshade="noshade" size="1">
    </td> </tr> </tbody></table> According to Emergency Management Agency Director Misty Green, the canvass will be done in all the towns of Sagadahoc County by town officials and volunteers. It will focus on what individuals could do in a time of sweeping medical crisis. West Bath and Phippsburg, she said, are the only towns mailing the pocket guides instead of hand-delivering them.

    "The key part to all of this is individual preparedness," said Green. "The towns can be ready and the county can be ready, but to stop the spread, the key is individual preparedness."

    The individual preparedness detailed in the agency's guide ranges from everyday measures such as washing hands frequently with soap and water to more long-term plans, like compiling an emergency kit with 30 days' worth of food, water, medicines and disinfectants.

    The guide also gives contact information for local, state and regional organizations trained to handle health scares.

    The practical day-to-day tips and contact numbers might also be useful in the shadow of the standard influenza season ? though not a pandemic ? which was declared under way Tuesday by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

    "We have had laboratory-confirmed cases of both Influenza A and B the past few days, including one influenza-related death," announced Dr. Dora Anne Mills, director of the center. "With the reopening of schools and many returning to work this week, it is especially important that we all heed the three basic guidelines of covering coughs and sneezes; washing hands frequently; and staying home if we're ill, particularly with a fever."

    Unlike the annual flu season, pandemics have occurred three times in the last century, and a Dec. 12 proclamation by the Sagadahoc County commissioners warned that "history and science suggest that the country and the world could face one or more pandemics in this century."

    One particularly publicized candidate to become the next pandemic ? defined as "a worldwide outbreak of a new virus for which there is little or no immunity in the human population" ? is the avian influenza, or "bird flu."

    The agency's guide notes that "bird flu viruses do not usually infect humans, but (the most recent) outbreak of bird flu has infected people, mainly in Southeast Asian countries."

    However, the avian influenza has opened eyes regarding the possibility of a pandemic outbreak, because "scientists and health professionals are concerned about bird flu because the current virus in birds may change and develop into a virus that will spread easily from one person to another."

    The commissioners thus proclaimed January to be Pandemic Influenza Awareness Month, which will be marked by several events, including the distribution of the guides.

    The county's board of health will kick off Pandemic Influenza Awareness Month during its meeting at 8 a.m. Friday. On Jan. 15 and Jan. 25, individual preparedness workshops will be held at 6 p.m. at the Topsham Public Library and the Woolwich Fire Department, respectively.</td></tr></tbody></table>
    "We are in this breathing space before it happens. We do not know how long that breathing space is going to be. But, if we are not all organizing ourselves to get ready and to take action to prepare for a pandemic, then we are squandering an opportunity for our human security"- Dr. David Nabarro
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