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Arizona Has Pandemic Plan But Gaps Remain in Preparations
December 16th, 2006 @ 12:59pm
by Associated Press
Arizona has a detailed plan to direct the state's response to a possible flu pandemic but major gaps remain in preparations for what could be a deadly scourge.
A public health advocacy group's nationwide evaluation placed Arizona in the bottom tier of states according to key preparedness measures, and those findings largely track assessments provided by key government officials in the state.
The Washington, D.C.-based Trust for America's Health credited Arizona with stable or increased funding for public health services and having surveillance systems to spot outbreaks.
However, the group's report also said Arizona falls short in areas such as pneumonia vaccination rates for seniors, hospital surge capacity and availability of nurses.
Super-strains of the easy-to-mutate influenza virus cause worldwide outbreaks every few decades or so, three in the last century. The worst was the 1918 pandemic that killed about 50 million people worldwide, 500,000 in the U.S. alone. If a 1918-style pandemic struck today, up to a third of the population could fall ill and 1.9 million Americans could die.
With another pandemic overdue, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began telling states to prepare years ago, plans that have taken on greater urgency with the simmering H5N1 bird flu. In 2004, just 29 states had pandemic plans of some sort. Today, all have at least a draft on paper.
Arizona health officials acknowledged in recent interviews with The Associated Press that plenty remains to be done here.
``We're leaps and bounds ahead of where we were three years ago but we're still not ready,'' said Will Humble, a deputy assistant director of the state Department of Health Services who oversees public health preparedness statewide.
Humble said the brunt of the work falls on county governments.
``We've got 15 counties and we've got early adopters and we've got people in the middle of the bell curve and we're got some people that are not further along as we'd like to see them,'' he said. ``I'm not going to name names. The important thing is no matter what jurisdiction you're in is that you make progress right now.''
Maricopa County's health director, Dr. Bob England, freely acknowledges that the state's most populous county, home to the Phoenix metro area and its roughly 4 million people, has a ways to go.
``We've got pieces of that kind of response in place but we're still building that system,'' England said.
In some cases, health officials know what needs to be done but don't have the means to do it, England said. ``We've got very few unused (intensive care unit) beds. We've got very few unused ventilators.''
That means accommodations and compromises will be necessary, England said. ``If you need to be ventilating 10,000 people at a time, you have family members'' using handheld air-breather bags around the clock.
One of the biggest concerns is that hospitals and other health-care facilities might not have enough trained personnel to cope with bulging demand for care in the event of a pandemic, Humble said.
Staffing is a problem even during a regular flu season, he said.
``This is a big nationwide problem and it's worse in Arizona than in most places because we've already got a physician and nursing shortage.''
Statewide, Humble said current efforts including trying to get the word on the need for individuals, schools, businesses, churches and other organizations to begin their own planning.
Humble said he's urged counties to work with schools and churches on plans to minimize public gatherings during a pandemic. An example would be for a church to hold numerous services during a week, instead of a big one on Sunday, so that smaller numbers of people could be spread out in the sanctuary.
``We're trying to get those local jurisdictions to think about the real nuts and bolts about how they would really get things done and keep society living but still do enough stuff to slow down the virus,'' he said.
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