Michigan: Counties given U.S. dollars to fight bird flu
Michigan: Counties given U.S. dollars to fight bird flu
Counties given U.S. dollars to fight bird flu
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
By Steve Gunn
CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER
Not long ago, Ken Kraus, director of the Muskegon County Health Department, wondered if the federal government was serious about preparing for a possible bird flu pandemic.
Now Kraus believes the feds mean business.
The latest evidence came Tuesday, when Muskegon County commissioners, meeting as the human resources committee, voted to accept a $38,223 supplemental grant on behalf of the health department, to spend on local bird flu preparation efforts.
The special allocation was dispersed to the states by the federal government, and to counties by state governments. County commissioners are expected to finalize their acceptance of the grant next Tuesday.
The money comes on the heels of a $10,000 grant which arrived earlier this year and paid for personal protection equipment for public health employees. And Kraus said he's been told to expect between $80,000 and $120,000 from the feds in the fall, around the start of the county's new fiscal year.
"It's a scary virus, and there wasn't much going on," Kraus said, regarding his earlier concern about a federal response to the potential pandemic. "Now I think we have their attention. I think the country has gotten on board with it."
To the north, a 10-county health department, which includes Oceana, Newaygo and Mason counties, received roughly $47,000 in a supplemental grant for bird flu preparation.
Other counties in the consortium are Crawford, Kalkaska, Lake, Manistee, Mecosta, Missaukee and Wexford.
Ottawa County Health Department did not return calls requesting information.
The extra money comes with a condition that it must be spent by Aug. 1. That won't be a problem in Muskegon County, where top health department officials have been spending a large percentage of their time planning a community response to a possible bird flu crisis.
As far as world health officials know, the deadly bird flu has been transferred only to a limited number of humans through contact with infected birds. And there have been no reported human cases of the bird flu in the United States.
But health officials are concerned about the possible development of a strain of the flu that would be easily transferable from human to human. If that were to happen, the chances of a global pandemic would increase significantly, according to experts.
The county health department recently completed a required "gap study," to determine deficiencies in local preparations, Kraus said. The study revealed several areas that must be addressed, he said.
One challenge will be effective communication with health providers throughout the county, schools, businesses and the general public, Kraus said.
For instance, some of the grant money will be spent to train local doctor's offices to report cases of bird flu directly to a state-operated Web site, instead of using slower communication methods, Kraus said. Fast reporting of bird flu cases would be critical to controlling its spread, he said.
Some of the money will be spent to develop a local online reporting system, so schools can quickly report suspected cases of bird flu, Kraus said. Communicable diseases spread easily in schools, but there is no state-operated Web site for schools to report critical information, so a local site must be developed, he said.
Communication with the public would also be critical during a bird flu pandemic, so some money will likely be spent on new computer software, high-speed printers and other equipment that can help the health department spread information quickly, as details of the pandemic change, Kraus said.
Meanwhile, health department officials are looking for ways to get "preparedness checklists," for individuals, families and businesses into circulation throughout the community. The checklists have already been published and are available, but relatively few people have taken them, Kraus said.
The key is to find ways to get the community to take the threat seriously enough to plan without panicking, Kraus said.
"We can do everything we can do here, but if we can't get the people out there planning, we wouldn't be able to slow this thing down," Kraus said.
The health department will also be spending money to continually test its local pandemic response plan, which is frequently updated.
Local officials plan to have clinics throughout the community, to disperse medications if they are available, Kraus said. They also have to determine a plan of operation if no medications are available, Kraus said.
A grim part of the plan that needs more developing is a local response to a large increase in deaths, which would be likely in a bird flu outbreak among humans. Kraus said his department has been told to prepare for the possibility of about six months worth of deaths in about six to eight weeks.
One possibility will be to work with local funeral homes and have a large supply of burial materials available.
Another is to identify tracts of land that can be used as temporary cemeteries until the emergency passes and bodies can be exhumed and reburied the traditional way, Kraus said.
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