Report anticipates toll of severe bird flu outbreak

[Guest guest]

Wonder WHO pays these guys to " SPECULATE & anticipate "

 

Report anticipates toll of severe bird flu outbreak By the Associated Press

September 17, 2006

FAIRFAX, Va. -- A bird flu pandemic would kill nearly 700 people in Fairfax

County, forcing hospitals, nursing homes and other makeshift medical centers to

set up temporary morgues and stockpile body bags to handle the deaths, according

to a new report.

 

" Life as you see it today will not be the same, " Fairfax health director Gloria

Addo-Ayensu said in response to a 112-page primer on how the Washington area's

largest local government would respond to such an outbreak.

 

Addo-Ayensu and other emergency management officials say Fairfax is the region's

first local government to issue a comprehensive report on pandemic flu

preparations.

 

The report comes amid fears that avian influenza, which is spreading worldwide

in poultry and has infected more than 230 people, could mutate into a virulent

strain that could spread widely from person to person, killing millions

worldwide.

 

Although the Bush administration has released a federal plan and committed tens

of millions of dollars to anticipate a crisis, the details of how to respond are

left to state and local governments.

 

The Fairfax report presents a grim scene. A severe outbreak of bird flu would

infect nearly a third of the county's population, sending thousands to local

hospitals. As much as 40 percent of the county's work force would be out of

commission.

 

To prepare for such a scenario, the county is giving government officials,

infectious disease specialists, emergency planners and first responders explicit

instructions on what to do if people get sick.

 

" We have to look at the scenarios that are the worst-case, and look at how we

would deal with them, " said C. Douglas Bass, Fairfax County's emergency

management director.

 

The county would track individual infections through reporting by local doctors

and hospitals. Sites would be set up to distribute a potential vaccine or

medicine, and sick people could be forced into quarantine.

 

Many county employees would work from home, and hundreds could be diverted from

their jobs in libraries, parks and other " nonessential " agencies to help with

the emergency response.

 

Other people would be ordered to stay home, steering clear of trains, buses,

malls and other places where they would come into close contact with others.

 

The county's goal is to minimize the transmission of a highly contagious virus

while keeping the county government of 11,000 employees running, albeit with

diminished services.

 

The response could be particularly challenging in a county of more than 1

million people, thousands of whom do not speak English. As many as 51,000 of

those infected would be low-income residents without regular access to medical

care, the response plan says.

 

" Trying to do mass vaccinations, for example, would be a huge challenge, " county

spokeswoman Merni Fitzgerald said. " We are so big that we can't just say,

'Everybody show up at one place. " '

[Guest guest]

Just a thought from someone from Pennsylvania who works with the mentally

handicapped in a group home. The state has already come in, over a month ago,

and has started preparing for the pandemic. We have already started preparing

the homes, etc, and started in motion what to do when, not if, our residents

become ill. The state is taking this very seriously, and so must we. So they

say.

 

Bob Dunbar <robertaldermandunbar wrote:

Wonder WHO pays these guys to " SPECULATE & anticipate "

 

Report anticipates toll of severe bird flu outbreak By the Associated Press

September 17, 2006

FAIRFAX, Va. -- A bird flu pandemic would kill nearly 700 people in Fairfax

County, forcing hospitals, nursing homes and other makeshift medical centers to

set up temporary morgues and stockpile body bags to handle the deaths, according

to a new report.

 

" Life as you see it today will not be the same, " Fairfax health director Gloria

Addo-Ayensu said in response to a 112-page primer on how the Washington area's

largest local government would respond to such an outbreak.

 

Addo-Ayensu and other emergency management officials say Fairfax is the region's

first local government to issue a comprehensive report on pandemic flu

preparations.

 

The report comes amid fears that avian influenza, which is spreading worldwide

in poultry and has infected more than 230 people, could mutate into a virulent

strain that could spread widely from person to person, killing millions

worldwide.

 

Although the Bush administration has released a federal plan and committed tens

of millions of dollars to anticipate a crisis, the details of how to respond are

left to state and local governments.

 

The Fairfax report presents a grim scene. A severe outbreak of bird flu would

infect nearly a third of the county's population, sending thousands to local

hospitals. As much as 40 percent of the county's work force would be out of

commission.

 

To prepare for such a scenario, the county is giving government officials,

infectious disease specialists, emergency planners and first responders explicit

instructions on what to do if people get sick.

 

" We have to look at the scenarios that are the worst-case, and look at how we

would deal with them, " said C. Douglas Bass, Fairfax County's emergency

management director.

 

The county would track individual infections through reporting by local doctors

and hospitals. Sites would be set up to distribute a potential vaccine or

medicine, and sick people could be forced into quarantine.

 

Many county employees would work from home, and hundreds could be diverted from

their jobs in libraries, parks and other " nonessential " agencies to help with

the emergency response.

 

Other people would be ordered to stay home, steering clear of trains, buses,

malls and other places where they would come into close contact with others.

 

The county's goal is to minimize the transmission of a highly contagious virus

while keeping the county government of 11,000 employees running, albeit with

diminished services.

 

The response could be particularly challenging in a county of more than 1

million people, thousands of whom do not speak English. As many as 51,000 of

those infected would be low-income residents without regular access to medical

care, the response plan says.

 

" Trying to do mass vaccinations, for example, would be a huge challenge, " county

spokeswoman Merni Fitzgerald said. " We are so big that we can't just say,

'Everybody show up at one place. " '