State, local reps meet to discuss pandemic flu planning

Health district makes presentations to community groups

GRANT COUNTY — More than 20 people from the health care field, local school districts and area businesses gathered Monday evening at Big Bend Community College to discuss county response planning in the event there should be a pandemic flu outbreak.

Health officials everywhere are most concerned that a pandemic flu will strike from a strain of the avian flu virus, H5N1, which could mutate and spread easily from human to human. A pandemic is an outbreak occurring on multiple continents at the same time.

Avian influenza is a infectious disease of birds caused by type A strains of the influenza virus. Direct or indirect contact of domestic flocks with wild migratory waterfowl and live bird markets are considered to be common causes of transmission.

More than 40 species of birds have tested positive for H5N1 which is unusual, said region seven epidemiologist Jackie Dawson at Monday's meeting.

"At this time there is no pandemic, but what we're seeing is that this may become pandemic at one point," said Grant County Health Officer Dr. Alexander Brzezny.

According to the World Health Organization, the first documented infection of avian influenza virus in humans occurred in Hong Kong in 1997 when the H5N1 strain caused severe respiratory disease in 18 humans, of whom six died. The infection of humans coincided with an epidemic of highly pathogenic avian influenza, caused by the same strain, in Hong Kong's poultry population.

In November, the World Health Organization reported a global phase three alert for pandemic flu meaning a new influenza subtype is responsible for disease in humans but has yet to spread quickly and consistently among humans. A phase six constitutes a pandemic.

Brzezny shared the projected impact on Grant County if a pandemic flu were to hit.

One in three people would be infected, one in 82 hospitalized and one in 400 would die, he said.

Throughout the evening, emphasis was placed on recognizing the difference between seasonal and pandemic flu.

Whereas seasonal flu happens yearly in the winter affecting 10 percent of the population and is recognized by the human immune system, pandemic flu occurs every couple of decades affecting between 25 and 50 percent of the population. Pandemic flu is not recognized by the immune system.

In addition, seasonal flu can be treated with available vaccine. There is no vaccine to treat a pandemic strain of the flu.

While some counties have purchased face masks, it is an additional cost Grant County cannot afford, nor do health officials believe masks are the best preventative measure.

Hand washing, covering the mouth when coughing and staying home from work and school when sick are the most effective methods to keep from getting sick, Brzezny said.

Those suggestions may seem basic, but it is advice many don't take.

State Department of Health medical epidemiologist Eric Sergienko, who also spoke Monday, said society tends to have a stick-it-out mentality when it comes to being sick and many don't properly take care of themselves, which could cause further infection in the work place and in schools. "It's a hard paradigm for people to get over."

In the meantime, Sergienko recommends families and individuals have 72-hour emergency kits on hand.

Health district officials will be making presentations to businesses, churches and other community groups to inform them about preparing for a pandemic flu outbreak.

For more information, go to www.doh.wa.gov.