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U.S. officials: Plan for bird flu
Don't count on government rescue, health secretary warns
March 21, 2006
BY LIZ RUSKIN
MCCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON -- Saying they want to inspire preparation, not alarm, three cabinet secretaries said Monday that the dangerous strain of avian flu is likely to make its first U.S. appearance in wild birds migrating from Asia to Alaska.
"It is increasingly likely that we will detect a highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian flu in birds within the U.S. borders, possibly as early as this year," Interior Secretary Gale Norton said.
The virus, which has appeared in Europe, Africa and Asia, can spread from birds to people, though there's no evidence it can be transmitted from person to person. Most human cases so far were in people who had close contact with diseased poultry, or virus-contaminated bird blood or droppings.
"At this point, if you're a bird, it's a pandemic," said Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. "If you're a human being, it's not."
But he presented a far grimmer view Monday than Norton or Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns.
This strain of avian flu is highly lethal and there is no human immunity, he said. It has killed at least 98 people worldwide since 2003 and has a mortality rate of about 50%.
Genetically and in the symptoms humans get, it looks very similar to the Spanish Influenza of 1918, he said, referring to a pandemic that killed at least 20 million people in two years.
Leavitt said the government has learned from its bungled response to Hurricane Katrina, but his examples suggested the response to a flu pandemic would be even worse.
After most natural disasters, health-care workers can come from elsewhere in the country to staff clinics in the affected zone. But a pandemic strikes everywhere, and each area needs all the resources it has. It also lasts longer -- a year to 18 months, he said.
Cities, schools and churches need to develop response plans, he said. Businesses, he said, should consider how they would keep going if a significant number of employees are out for weeks at a time.
"Any community that fails to prepare with the expectation that the federal government will, at the last moment, be able to come to the rescue will be tragically wrong," he said.
The government is stockpiling Tamiflu and other antivirals, and it is supporting the development of flu vaccines, he said. It is also gathering masks and ventilators, he said.
But "there is no way in which 5,000 different communities can be responded to simultaneously," he warned.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060321/NEWS07/603210408/1009
Don't count on government rescue, health secretary warns
March 21, 2006
BY LIZ RUSKIN
MCCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON -- Saying they want to inspire preparation, not alarm, three cabinet secretaries said Monday that the dangerous strain of avian flu is likely to make its first U.S. appearance in wild birds migrating from Asia to Alaska.
"It is increasingly likely that we will detect a highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian flu in birds within the U.S. borders, possibly as early as this year," Interior Secretary Gale Norton said.
The virus, which has appeared in Europe, Africa and Asia, can spread from birds to people, though there's no evidence it can be transmitted from person to person. Most human cases so far were in people who had close contact with diseased poultry, or virus-contaminated bird blood or droppings.
"At this point, if you're a bird, it's a pandemic," said Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. "If you're a human being, it's not."
But he presented a far grimmer view Monday than Norton or Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns.
This strain of avian flu is highly lethal and there is no human immunity, he said. It has killed at least 98 people worldwide since 2003 and has a mortality rate of about 50%.
Genetically and in the symptoms humans get, it looks very similar to the Spanish Influenza of 1918, he said, referring to a pandemic that killed at least 20 million people in two years.
Leavitt said the government has learned from its bungled response to Hurricane Katrina, but his examples suggested the response to a flu pandemic would be even worse.
After most natural disasters, health-care workers can come from elsewhere in the country to staff clinics in the affected zone. But a pandemic strikes everywhere, and each area needs all the resources it has. It also lasts longer -- a year to 18 months, he said.
Cities, schools and churches need to develop response plans, he said. Businesses, he said, should consider how they would keep going if a significant number of employees are out for weeks at a time.
"Any community that fails to prepare with the expectation that the federal government will, at the last moment, be able to come to the rescue will be tragically wrong," he said.
The government is stockpiling Tamiflu and other antivirals, and it is supporting the development of flu vaccines, he said. It is also gathering masks and ventilators, he said.
But "there is no way in which 5,000 different communities can be responded to simultaneously," he warned.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060321/NEWS07/603210408/1009
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