http://www.zwire.com/site/tab6.cfm?newsid=16865761&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=506105&rfi=6
County prepares for avian flu
The Virginia Department of Health will be stepping up its avian-flu awareness program this summer, when officials will engage in a media blitz of sorts to educate the public about how to prepare for a potential pandemic.
In May, the Prince William County Health District received $66,000 from the VDH after the Center for Disease Control granted the state more than $2.2 million in January. The state may renew the county grant in August.
"Preparing for a pandemic which may or may not happen, allows (residents) to be prepared for any large scale event that might occur," said Dr. Alison Ansher, M.D., pandemic flu preparedness outreach coordinator.
"We've been out trying to get people to prepare" for a pandemic of any sort, Ansher said. "This is a perfect avenue ... it's much more real. It's much easier to get people to prepare when they're aware."
As part of the preparedness plan, the department is encouraging all Manassas, Manassas Park and Prince William County residents to stock up "on two weeks' worth of food, water and medications."
Practicing basic hygiene is also a must, said Ansher.
Ansher said that the first priority with the grant money will be educating the public about pandemic flu. If there is any money left over "we're going to go to the businesses," she said.
Wiping shopping cart handles with sanitizers and making hand sanitizers available by public computers are practices businesses could apply to help curb the spread of flu, Ansher said.
"Hand washing is the ideal, but let's be honest: you have to make it convenient for people," she said.
Officials from the Prince William County Health Department will distribute fliers and speak to people about pandemic flu prevention at regional events such as the National Night Out in Gainesville on Aug. 1 and during the Prince William County Fair, Aug. 11-19.
Department officials have also begun distributing copies an educational DVD to area libraries, according to Asher Grady, co-pandemic flu preparedness outreach coordinator.
Grady said the DVD is playing on the city and government channels and a copy has been sent to medical facilities and those who deal with health care, such as Kaiser Permanente in Woodbridge.
The DVD "starts with Gov. Kaine discussing what could happen and the dangers with pandemic flu," Grady said. He said part of the DVD features a question and answer session with "ordinary people on the streets" asking questions answered by professionals such as medical doctors or officials from the Virginia Department of Health. Officials speaking on the DVD also discuss how or when the virus could mutate, according to Grady.
The flu
Those who do contract the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus that causes avian flu tend to show the same "general symptoms of (regular) flu," Ansher said. "Unfortunately, these people go into more respiratory distress and die."
The avian flu is generally contracted by people who are exposed to infected birds. While the virus has yet to be detected in the United States, 228 cases in people throughout 10 countries, mostly in Asia and the Middle East, have been confirmed since 2003. Fifty-seven percent of those infected, or 130 people, have died.
General living conditions within the U.S. make the population at large less at risk of contracting the flu than some of those who have contracted it in other countries.
"In some counties, people sleep with their poultry," Ansher said. Some of those who contracted the virus "were drinking blood from chickens," she noted, adding that "We don't ride on buses with our poultry.
What concerns health department officials is that the virus will mutate, allowing it to be contracted by person-to-person contact instead of just those who have been exposed to birds with the virus.
No such mutations have been reported to date, but from September 1918 to April 1919, a pandemic of influenza called the Spanish Flu killed 20 to 40 million people throughout the world, including between 500,000 to 675,000 Americans.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services Web site, "Some people who felt well in the morning became sick by noon and were dead by nightfall. Those who did not succumb to the disease within the first few days often died of complications from the flu (such as pneumonia) caused by bacteria."
"I think the United States may be in a better position," to combat the avian flu, Ansher said, "because of the planning." She said that the country is "much more open with information where some other countries may not be able to provide to the world what's going on."
Ansher also said the United States has better access to "more resources," such as the anti-viral medication Tamiflu.
However, the medication "may not work when the virus mutates" Ansher said, though it may as well, she noted.
"Potentially, pandemic flu is going to be so huge, you won't have the number of (medical) staff," to treat those infected with the virus, Ansher said. "The enormity of it makes it much more difficult; the more the issue comes up, the more questions people have.
"Hand-washing makes all the difference in the world" in preventing the spread of flu, Ansher said. "Teach children how to wash their hands. It has to start when they're young.
"When people sneeze," Ansher said, "make sure people sneeze into a tissue and dispose of it properly. Use hand sanitizers ... if you sneeze and don't have a tissue, sneeze into your elbow. Best, of course, is washing."
More information about pandemic flu can be found at the government-run Web site www.pandemicflu.gov and by calling the Center for Disease Control's 24-hour information line, (800) 232-4636.
County prepares for avian flu
The Virginia Department of Health will be stepping up its avian-flu awareness program this summer, when officials will engage in a media blitz of sorts to educate the public about how to prepare for a potential pandemic.
In May, the Prince William County Health District received $66,000 from the VDH after the Center for Disease Control granted the state more than $2.2 million in January. The state may renew the county grant in August.
"Preparing for a pandemic which may or may not happen, allows (residents) to be prepared for any large scale event that might occur," said Dr. Alison Ansher, M.D., pandemic flu preparedness outreach coordinator.
"We've been out trying to get people to prepare" for a pandemic of any sort, Ansher said. "This is a perfect avenue ... it's much more real. It's much easier to get people to prepare when they're aware."
As part of the preparedness plan, the department is encouraging all Manassas, Manassas Park and Prince William County residents to stock up "on two weeks' worth of food, water and medications."
Practicing basic hygiene is also a must, said Ansher.
Ansher said that the first priority with the grant money will be educating the public about pandemic flu. If there is any money left over "we're going to go to the businesses," she said.
Wiping shopping cart handles with sanitizers and making hand sanitizers available by public computers are practices businesses could apply to help curb the spread of flu, Ansher said.
"Hand washing is the ideal, but let's be honest: you have to make it convenient for people," she said.
Officials from the Prince William County Health Department will distribute fliers and speak to people about pandemic flu prevention at regional events such as the National Night Out in Gainesville on Aug. 1 and during the Prince William County Fair, Aug. 11-19.
Department officials have also begun distributing copies an educational DVD to area libraries, according to Asher Grady, co-pandemic flu preparedness outreach coordinator.
Grady said the DVD is playing on the city and government channels and a copy has been sent to medical facilities and those who deal with health care, such as Kaiser Permanente in Woodbridge.
The DVD "starts with Gov. Kaine discussing what could happen and the dangers with pandemic flu," Grady said. He said part of the DVD features a question and answer session with "ordinary people on the streets" asking questions answered by professionals such as medical doctors or officials from the Virginia Department of Health. Officials speaking on the DVD also discuss how or when the virus could mutate, according to Grady.
The flu
Those who do contract the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus that causes avian flu tend to show the same "general symptoms of (regular) flu," Ansher said. "Unfortunately, these people go into more respiratory distress and die."
The avian flu is generally contracted by people who are exposed to infected birds. While the virus has yet to be detected in the United States, 228 cases in people throughout 10 countries, mostly in Asia and the Middle East, have been confirmed since 2003. Fifty-seven percent of those infected, or 130 people, have died.
General living conditions within the U.S. make the population at large less at risk of contracting the flu than some of those who have contracted it in other countries.
"In some counties, people sleep with their poultry," Ansher said. Some of those who contracted the virus "were drinking blood from chickens," she noted, adding that "We don't ride on buses with our poultry.
What concerns health department officials is that the virus will mutate, allowing it to be contracted by person-to-person contact instead of just those who have been exposed to birds with the virus.
No such mutations have been reported to date, but from September 1918 to April 1919, a pandemic of influenza called the Spanish Flu killed 20 to 40 million people throughout the world, including between 500,000 to 675,000 Americans.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services Web site, "Some people who felt well in the morning became sick by noon and were dead by nightfall. Those who did not succumb to the disease within the first few days often died of complications from the flu (such as pneumonia) caused by bacteria."
"I think the United States may be in a better position," to combat the avian flu, Ansher said, "because of the planning." She said that the country is "much more open with information where some other countries may not be able to provide to the world what's going on."
Ansher also said the United States has better access to "more resources," such as the anti-viral medication Tamiflu.
However, the medication "may not work when the virus mutates" Ansher said, though it may as well, she noted.
"Potentially, pandemic flu is going to be so huge, you won't have the number of (medical) staff," to treat those infected with the virus, Ansher said. "The enormity of it makes it much more difficult; the more the issue comes up, the more questions people have.
"Hand-washing makes all the difference in the world" in preventing the spread of flu, Ansher said. "Teach children how to wash their hands. It has to start when they're young.
"When people sneeze," Ansher said, "make sure people sneeze into a tissue and dispose of it properly. Use hand sanitizers ... if you sneeze and don't have a tissue, sneeze into your elbow. Best, of course, is washing."
More information about pandemic flu can be found at the government-run Web site www.pandemicflu.gov and by calling the Center for Disease Control's 24-hour information line, (800) 232-4636.