Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.greenevillesun.com/story/299018
November 01, 2008
Exercise Planned In Case Flu Pandemic Should Arise
Source: The Greeneville Sun
Event Will Look At Scenarios In Case The Need Should Arise
By BILL JONES
Staff Writer
The Greeneville-Greene County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), has set a tentative Jan. 28, 2009, date for conducting an exercise for dealing with a possible influenza pandemic.
The action came on Wednesday after the committee heard a report from two Tennessee Department of Health officials about state and local plans for dealing with a possible future influenza pandemic.
Shirley Hughes, emergency response coordinator at the regional state Department of Health office in Johnson City, and Rebekah English, director of the Greene County Health Department, spoke about the respective regional and local plans.
Both noted that plans for dealing with a possible outbreak of a strain of influenza similar to one that killed five million people worldwide in 1918 were first developed in 2006 and are now in need of being updated.
Hughes and English both also stressed that a worldwide epidemic (called a pandemic) of the killer strain of influenza is not believed to be imminent.
However, it is possible that a strain of an avian influenza virus could mutate so that it could spread first from birds to humans and then spread easily from person to person, they said.
During her remarks, Hughes told the audience of local emergency agency leaders, elected officials and industry representatives that the so-called H1N5 avian influenza strain first appeared in 1996 and spread to Europe and Africa in 2006.
As of June 2008, Hughes told the audience, there had been 385 humans contracting avian influenza from birds. In addition, she said 243 deaths from avian influenza had resulted as of June of this year. Most of those who died were either children or young adults.
The highest fatality rate, she said, involved patients between the ages of 10 and 19.
1918 Pandemic
But she stressed that it remains unknown if the H1N5 strain of avian influenza will eventually lead to a pandemic, such as was experienced in 1918.
Speaking of the 1918 pandemic, Hughes said current medical assumptions are that the influenza pandemic spread around the world that year in four to six months, killing an estimated 40 to 50 million people.
The 1918 pandemic, she said, had a death rate 25 times higher than in previous influenza epidemics.
Hughes also told the audience that current medical assumptions are that should another influenza pandemic take place, everyone would be susceptible to the disease, with at least 40 percent of the population stricken.
Another assumption, Hughes said, is that between two percent and 20 percent of those affected would be hospitalized and that between 0.2-percent and 2 percent of those stricken would die.
Hughes also noted that health officials fear a future pandemic would come in two waves, each lasting six to eight weeks.
Should such an influenza pandemic strike Greene County, health officials said on Wednesday, Greene County could experience as many as 1,400 deaths (based on a population of approximately 68,000 people).
Enough Morgue Space?
English pointed out that Greene County currently has only four morgue spaces for bodies.
Dealing with possible mass deaths, she said, is a weak point of the current local pandemic influenza plan.
Greene County Health Department Director English told the audience, that although a local plan for dealing with an influenza pandemic was completed in 2006, she feels it is in need of being updated.
English called for representatives of all local emergency, healthcare and governmental bodies to take part in a "table-top" exercise soon to test the current pandemic influenza plan and work to update and improve it.
"We all have to work together," English said.
She also warned the audience that the local emergency, healthcare and governmental bodies represented by those taking part in Wednesday's meeting will be the ones that will have to deal with a pandemic influenza outbreak here, should one occur.
Greene County Sheriff Steve Burns, who attended the meeting, said after hearing the remarks delivered by Hughes and English that he wondered how he could deal with an outbreak of the disease among the 400 prisoners at the Greene County Detention Center, or jail.
Burns said he has no way to isolate large numbers of influenza-stricken prisoners.
Noah Roark, chairman of the LEPC, said, after hearing the sheriff's remarks, that he feels it is important that the LEPC hold a "table-top" exercise about an influenza pandemic as soon as possible in an effort to address the sheriff's problem and to revise the local plan for dealing with such a pandemic.
Because such a disease would be new, no one worldwide would have immunity to it and, therefore, the entire population would be susceptible to being stricken by it, they said.
Affect On Industries
The two health officials had tailored their remarks to the business community and told representatives of local industries that in the event of a pandemic influenza outbreak, scientists think 30 to 40 percent of workers would either be ill with the disease or caring for those stricken by it.
Businesses and industries should revise their business plans to take into account the possibility of having to operate with 30-to-40 percent of their workers unavailable.
Health officials said businesses should plan to have enough supplies on hand to operate for at least two weeks because transportation interruptions could result from an influenza pandemic.
In addition, she said, businesses should plan to implement measures to keep healthy workers from being infected by those who become ill.
Industries also should consider restricting employees' travel and amend sick-leave policies in the event of a pandemic. They also should make plans for addressing child-care needs of workers in the event of an influenza pandemic, the health officials said.
Both Hughes and English also said that in the event of an influenza pandemic, local governments likely will have to take actions to restrict public gatherings to limit the spread of the disease.
"It's going to be tough to tell people they can't go to Wal-Mart or church," English said.
November 01, 2008
Exercise Planned In Case Flu Pandemic Should Arise
Source: The Greeneville Sun
Event Will Look At Scenarios In Case The Need Should Arise
By BILL JONES
Staff Writer
The Greeneville-Greene County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), has set a tentative Jan. 28, 2009, date for conducting an exercise for dealing with a possible influenza pandemic.
The action came on Wednesday after the committee heard a report from two Tennessee Department of Health officials about state and local plans for dealing with a possible future influenza pandemic.
Shirley Hughes, emergency response coordinator at the regional state Department of Health office in Johnson City, and Rebekah English, director of the Greene County Health Department, spoke about the respective regional and local plans.
Both noted that plans for dealing with a possible outbreak of a strain of influenza similar to one that killed five million people worldwide in 1918 were first developed in 2006 and are now in need of being updated.
Hughes and English both also stressed that a worldwide epidemic (called a pandemic) of the killer strain of influenza is not believed to be imminent.
However, it is possible that a strain of an avian influenza virus could mutate so that it could spread first from birds to humans and then spread easily from person to person, they said.
During her remarks, Hughes told the audience of local emergency agency leaders, elected officials and industry representatives that the so-called H1N5 avian influenza strain first appeared in 1996 and spread to Europe and Africa in 2006.
As of June 2008, Hughes told the audience, there had been 385 humans contracting avian influenza from birds. In addition, she said 243 deaths from avian influenza had resulted as of June of this year. Most of those who died were either children or young adults.
The highest fatality rate, she said, involved patients between the ages of 10 and 19.
1918 Pandemic
But she stressed that it remains unknown if the H1N5 strain of avian influenza will eventually lead to a pandemic, such as was experienced in 1918.
Speaking of the 1918 pandemic, Hughes said current medical assumptions are that the influenza pandemic spread around the world that year in four to six months, killing an estimated 40 to 50 million people.
The 1918 pandemic, she said, had a death rate 25 times higher than in previous influenza epidemics.
Hughes also told the audience that current medical assumptions are that should another influenza pandemic take place, everyone would be susceptible to the disease, with at least 40 percent of the population stricken.
Another assumption, Hughes said, is that between two percent and 20 percent of those affected would be hospitalized and that between 0.2-percent and 2 percent of those stricken would die.
Hughes also noted that health officials fear a future pandemic would come in two waves, each lasting six to eight weeks.
Should such an influenza pandemic strike Greene County, health officials said on Wednesday, Greene County could experience as many as 1,400 deaths (based on a population of approximately 68,000 people).
Enough Morgue Space?
English pointed out that Greene County currently has only four morgue spaces for bodies.
Dealing with possible mass deaths, she said, is a weak point of the current local pandemic influenza plan.
Greene County Health Department Director English told the audience, that although a local plan for dealing with an influenza pandemic was completed in 2006, she feels it is in need of being updated.
English called for representatives of all local emergency, healthcare and governmental bodies to take part in a "table-top" exercise soon to test the current pandemic influenza plan and work to update and improve it.
"We all have to work together," English said.
She also warned the audience that the local emergency, healthcare and governmental bodies represented by those taking part in Wednesday's meeting will be the ones that will have to deal with a pandemic influenza outbreak here, should one occur.
Greene County Sheriff Steve Burns, who attended the meeting, said after hearing the remarks delivered by Hughes and English that he wondered how he could deal with an outbreak of the disease among the 400 prisoners at the Greene County Detention Center, or jail.
Burns said he has no way to isolate large numbers of influenza-stricken prisoners.
Noah Roark, chairman of the LEPC, said, after hearing the sheriff's remarks, that he feels it is important that the LEPC hold a "table-top" exercise about an influenza pandemic as soon as possible in an effort to address the sheriff's problem and to revise the local plan for dealing with such a pandemic.
Because such a disease would be new, no one worldwide would have immunity to it and, therefore, the entire population would be susceptible to being stricken by it, they said.
Affect On Industries
The two health officials had tailored their remarks to the business community and told representatives of local industries that in the event of a pandemic influenza outbreak, scientists think 30 to 40 percent of workers would either be ill with the disease or caring for those stricken by it.
Businesses and industries should revise their business plans to take into account the possibility of having to operate with 30-to-40 percent of their workers unavailable.
Health officials said businesses should plan to have enough supplies on hand to operate for at least two weeks because transportation interruptions could result from an influenza pandemic.
In addition, she said, businesses should plan to implement measures to keep healthy workers from being infected by those who become ill.
Industries also should consider restricting employees' travel and amend sick-leave policies in the event of a pandemic. They also should make plans for addressing child-care needs of workers in the event of an influenza pandemic, the health officials said.
Both Hughes and English also said that in the event of an influenza pandemic, local governments likely will have to take actions to restrict public gatherings to limit the spread of the disease.
"It's going to be tough to tell people they can't go to Wal-Mart or church," English said.