http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/03232006news15056.cfm
County health officials set bird-flu plan
Thursday, March 23, 2006
By TOM VOGT, Columbian staff writer
While avian flu hasn't reached the United States yet, Clark County health officials have kicked off the first phase of their response plan.
"We need to be prepared. The first stage of bird flu will come some time this year," John Wiesman, director of the Clark County Health Department, said Tuesday .
The first response is a low-key one.
"The focus right now is on public outreach, surveillance of both animals and humans, and planning with our hospital partners," Wiesman said after a local health panel met with county commissioners Marc Boldt and Betty Sue Morris.
As part of its information campaign, the health department has put a page with questions and answers about bird flu on its Web site. It notes that the current risk in the United States is low because of two factors: Health officials know of no birds in the U.S. with the H5N1 virus that causes avian flu; and, because H5N1 is almost never transmitted from human to human at this time, it can't spread to large numbers of people.
However, local planners also are considering a worst-case scenario, which means, "We would have human transmission, and we're working overtime," Wiesman said.
The two local hospitals, Southwest Washington Medical Center and Legacy Salmon Creek, would be overwhelmed, Wiesman said, and the medical community would need to establish alternate sites for evaluation and care.
Bird flu has spread from Asia to parts of Europe and Africa, mainly affecting poultry. There have been 184 confirmed human cases since 2003, according to the World Health Organization's Monday update. More than half the infected humans 103 have died of avian flu.
"We lose a lot more people than that because of smoking and car accidents," said Dr. Justin Denny, Clark County health officer. "But we're worried about the precedent of 1918," when a global flu pandemic killed at least 20 million people.
Avian flu has taken its biggest toll on Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, where 78 of the world's 103 bird-flu victims have died. The three Southeast Asian countries also account for 3,599 of the 4,340 flu outbreaks in poultry, according to the World Health Organization.
Wild birds migrating from Asia to North America will be bringing the virus here, and federal health officials are stepping up their monitoring efforts in Alaska, which is part of the migration route.
For people who will have to be living with bird flu in the foreseeable future, health officials are offering some familiar advice.
"Right now, the message is about hygiene, preparedness supplies and a preparedness plan," Wiesman said. "Good hygiene means wash hands frequently, cover your cough or sneeze, keep your fingers out of your eyes, stay home if you're ill. They're all good public health measures for seasonal flu, colds or norovirus.
"If you haven't started stocking food, water and medicine, use this as a motivator," Wiesman said. "And if you have a three-day supply, build for two weeks. Learn from the Gulf Coast."
Planning includes considering family issues such as day care for children, and making sure elderly family members are safe. Workplaces have their own issues, including policies encouraging ill people to stay home or to send them home.
"There also are social-distancing issues, from encouraging people not to shake hands, all the way up to closing schools. There's quite a range there."
And it could all wind up in the laps of the county commissioners, who also serve as the county's board of health.
"Those are decisions you don't think about when you run for county commissioner," Morris said. "Shutting down buses and banks."
Did you know? "Pandemic" refers to the range of the outbreak, not to any particular virus. A pandemic is an outbreak of disease on multiple continents at the same time. So a pandemic flu is a global outbreak of flu that spreads easily from person to person.
County health officials set bird-flu plan
Thursday, March 23, 2006
By TOM VOGT, Columbian staff writer
While avian flu hasn't reached the United States yet, Clark County health officials have kicked off the first phase of their response plan.
"We need to be prepared. The first stage of bird flu will come some time this year," John Wiesman, director of the Clark County Health Department, said Tuesday .
The first response is a low-key one.
"The focus right now is on public outreach, surveillance of both animals and humans, and planning with our hospital partners," Wiesman said after a local health panel met with county commissioners Marc Boldt and Betty Sue Morris.
As part of its information campaign, the health department has put a page with questions and answers about bird flu on its Web site. It notes that the current risk in the United States is low because of two factors: Health officials know of no birds in the U.S. with the H5N1 virus that causes avian flu; and, because H5N1 is almost never transmitted from human to human at this time, it can't spread to large numbers of people.
However, local planners also are considering a worst-case scenario, which means, "We would have human transmission, and we're working overtime," Wiesman said.
The two local hospitals, Southwest Washington Medical Center and Legacy Salmon Creek, would be overwhelmed, Wiesman said, and the medical community would need to establish alternate sites for evaluation and care.
Bird flu has spread from Asia to parts of Europe and Africa, mainly affecting poultry. There have been 184 confirmed human cases since 2003, according to the World Health Organization's Monday update. More than half the infected humans 103 have died of avian flu.
"We lose a lot more people than that because of smoking and car accidents," said Dr. Justin Denny, Clark County health officer. "But we're worried about the precedent of 1918," when a global flu pandemic killed at least 20 million people.
Avian flu has taken its biggest toll on Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, where 78 of the world's 103 bird-flu victims have died. The three Southeast Asian countries also account for 3,599 of the 4,340 flu outbreaks in poultry, according to the World Health Organization.
Wild birds migrating from Asia to North America will be bringing the virus here, and federal health officials are stepping up their monitoring efforts in Alaska, which is part of the migration route.
For people who will have to be living with bird flu in the foreseeable future, health officials are offering some familiar advice.
"Right now, the message is about hygiene, preparedness supplies and a preparedness plan," Wiesman said. "Good hygiene means wash hands frequently, cover your cough or sneeze, keep your fingers out of your eyes, stay home if you're ill. They're all good public health measures for seasonal flu, colds or norovirus.
"If you haven't started stocking food, water and medicine, use this as a motivator," Wiesman said. "And if you have a three-day supply, build for two weeks. Learn from the Gulf Coast."
Planning includes considering family issues such as day care for children, and making sure elderly family members are safe. Workplaces have their own issues, including policies encouraging ill people to stay home or to send them home.
"There also are social-distancing issues, from encouraging people not to shake hands, all the way up to closing schools. There's quite a range there."
And it could all wind up in the laps of the county commissioners, who also serve as the county's board of health.
"Those are decisions you don't think about when you run for county commissioner," Morris said. "Shutting down buses and banks."
Did you know? "Pandemic" refers to the range of the outbreak, not to any particular virus. A pandemic is an outbreak of disease on multiple continents at the same time. So a pandemic flu is a global outbreak of flu that spreads easily from person to person.