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Utah - Wellsville Buys Tamiflu for Key City Employees for possible Pandemic Flu

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  • Utah - Wellsville Buys Tamiflu for Key City Employees for possible Pandemic Flu

    Wellsville ready in event of flu pandemic with $3.3K plan

    <!--subtitle--><!--byline-->The Salt Lake Tribune
    <!--date-->Article Last Updated: 03/12/2008 01:58:46 AM MDT

    <script language="JavaScript"> var requestedWidth = 0; </script>
    <script language="JavaScript"> if(requestedWidth > 0){ document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').styl e.width = requestedWidth + "px"; document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').styl e.margin = "0px 0px 10px 10px"; } </script>WELLSVILLE - This northern Utah city is taking steps to fight a flu pandemic.

    Just in case. The Wellsville City Council voted to buy 12-week courses of the antiviral medication oseltamivir - also known as Tamiflu - for 20 key employees.

    If a pandemic strikes, Wellsville's mayor, city manager, one office secretary and two public-works employees will receive the medication, with the remaining 15 courses going to firefighters and other first responders.

    Cost to the city: $3,300.

    "There's no community that struggles more to pay their bills than Wellsville," City Manager Don Hartle said, "but we're doing this for the community." Wellsville, population 2,700, is just south of Logan. - Arrin Newton Brunson

    Utah’s independent news source since 1871, The Salt Lake Tribune covers news, entertainment, sports and faith for Salt Lake City and the state of Utah.



  • #2
    Re: Utah - Wellsville Buys Tamiflu for Key City Employees for possible Pandemic Flu

    I'd like to know how they got a rate around $14 per course. That is about what states are paying. Sounds like they are buying under the Federal plan, which of contractural necessity would need to be funneled through the Utah department of health.

    I hope their apparently small police force also gets the Tamiflu. They could spend a bit more and buy enough Pronenecid to cover those people and effectively double that supply. Or double the people who would need it.

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    • #3
      Re: Utah - Wellsville Buys Tamiflu for Key City Employees for possible Pandemic Flu

      There are issues with ordering and dispensing drugs to employees. One big issue is the distribution to the employee. What if his child gets sick first? He/she will want to obtain their allocation and give it to their child. Will the employer give this vital drug to the employee's child instead of the employee?

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      • #4
        Re: Utah - Wellsville Buys Tamiflu for Key City Employees for possible Pandemic Flu

        Why is this mickey mouse article considered newsworthy in the first place??

        Like what, a thousand other municipalities aren't doing the same thing with emergency public moneys intended for this specific purpose??

        Interesting redundancy, mayor and city manager. Get rid of one of them, and you have more than enough coin to treat fire, police, ambulance and dispatch, plus key municipal works.

        Wellsville population: 2,728

        *squint*

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        • #5
          Re: Utah - Wellsville Buys Tamiflu for Key City Employees for possible Pandemic Flu

          We are concerned with all life here. Even small cities.

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          • #6
            Re: Utah - Wellsville Buys Tamiflu for Key City Employees for possible Pandemic Flu

            especially small cities...thanks Florida...couldn't have said it better myself...

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            • #7
              Re: Utah - Wellsville Buys Tamiflu for Key City Employees for possible Pandemic Flu

              There are many threads here at FT and elsewhere about breakdowns in infrastructure and JIT delivery systems in the event of a severe pandemic. There will be problems of treating, supplying, and protecting people in large urban settings. There is a general consensus among seasoned flu forum members that in the event of a severe pandemic, ones best chance of survival will be in a small local community surrounded by family, friends, and neighbors that have adequately prepared to weather a pandemic storm.

              Indeed, Wellsville and thousands of other small communities around the world, properly prepared, may help civilization return to some form of normalcy after a world-wide devastating pandemic.

              Every community needs to prepare, no matter how big or how small it is.
              http://novel-infectious-diseases.blogspot.com/

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              • #8
                Re: Utah - Wellsville Buys Tamiflu for Key City Employees for possible Pandemic Flu

                My village in Quebec has only 1,200 people and it is one of the most delightful places I have ever been.

                The people are warm and caring toward each other - even to newcomers like me.

                My family has a different language and culture but they have opened their hearts to us and accept us for who we are.

                This is the kind of compassion and understanding that will cross all barriers in a society to help lessen morbidity and mortality.

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                • #9
                  Buying the expensive hype behind Tamiflu

                  I, too, live in a small town, in a rural setting. That has little to do with this discussion.

                  Officials strutting their stuff over spending money on expensive antiviral medications that will likely have no effect in staving off infection - that is the problem here. I suggest that the money might have been better spent on a public education program, proactive outreach to the residents, so that they can prepare.

                  In a town this size, charity resources will be scant, as will County and State emergency response and medical support, during an widespread infectious disease emergency. On the other hand, it will be relatively easy to enforce NPI, as long as the town residents have a reasonable stockpile of food and a handful of OTC medicines to treat symptoms.

                  Surely, you have noticed Niman patiently explaining the acquisition of antiviral resistance polymorphisms in numerous influenza viral strains. It's a reasonable bet that when a pandemic hits our Golden Shores, it will be resistant to Tamiflu.

                  Population (year 2000): 2,728.
                  Estimated population in July 2006: 2,485

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                  • #10
                    Re: Utah - Wellsville Buys Tamiflu for Key City Employees for possible Pandemic Flu

                    How do you know the town hasn't spent time and money educating their population?

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                    • #11
                      Re: Utah - Wellsville Buys Tamiflu for Key City Employees for possible Pandemic Flu

                      Criticiting government leaders because you think they made a bad choice by investing in antivirals is not fruitful. I think we can agree that this community should be applauded for the effort. At least they are taking a pandemic threat seriously and have taken some kind of action to protect themselves.
                      http://novel-infectious-diseases.blogspot.com/

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                      • #12
                        Still not getting it, eh?

                        Fact: long before Tamiflu appeared on the market, environmental isolates carried the gene polymorphism that confers drug resistance.

                        Fact: active recombination has been demonstrated for a variety of high frequency influenza strains that infect mammals.

                        Fact: drug-resistant polymorphisms (there are several, not one) that render Tamiflu ineffective are selected for and enhanced in environmental strains for reasons other than antiviral drug use in local human and animal populations.

                        Sally, I searched for any indicators of public outreach for public preparedness by the city. I didn't find anything. Emergency management is handled at the county level, by Cache Co sheriffs department. Nothing on their web page to indicate pandemic preparedness outreach. I downloaded their emergency guide (under Information/Education).



                        Zero in that document on infectious disease/pandemic readiness.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Utah - Wellsville Buys Tamiflu for Key City Employees for possible Pandemic Flu

                          most of us who live in a small town (my little town has about 900 people) don't have the money for that...but, what we do have is a love of community, friendship, a willingness of shared resources and compassion...that being said, i'm going to protect my kids and grandkids at all costs but i'll do the right thing, even if it's really hard to do...

                          course, some of my neighbors are like family so i think we'll be fine...

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                          • #14
                            Re: Utah - Wellsville Buys Tamiflu for Key City Employees for possible Pandemic Flu

                            One may feel a sense of safety in living at small community (villages, hamlets, sparsely inhabitated). But a comprehensive analysis of the geographical area perhaps it is also needed. Ie: in the area are installed bio-chemichal facilities, oil refinery or storage tankers, continuus-cycle chemichal plants, NPP, and military installation? Is the community aware of the presence of these facilities? Are enough protected against possible cycle failure and chemichal contamination or fallout?
                            Small communities may be delightful but the neighboring installations deserve attention in the light of a mass-casualties events, with disruption of supplies and workforce.
                            An example from Italy: near a small town not far from Garda Lake (N Italy) there is a military base with tens of N-warheads..., and tourists admire the sun and the beatiful of countryside...

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                            • #15
                              Re: Utah - Wellsville Buys Tamiflu for Key City Employees for possible Pandemic Flu

                              actually, i live in the same place that Jim Jones (People's Temple fame) lived cuz he found out that this little valley surrounded by hills is one of the safest places on earth to live in the event of a nuclear war...

                              we're cut off by hills, mountains and large lakes and an ocean on all sides...

                              and, there are gardens, vineyards and wild life in abundance..

                              so, i speak of small communities with love and appreciation...i know how blessed i am..

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