Health district plans for flu outbreak

Residents advised to store a week of supplies

GRANT COUNTY — If the Avian flu virus becomes a pandemic, 12,100 to 28,000 in Grant County could become infected, the Grant County Health District estimated.

At a community forum Tuesday night to discuss planning for the pandemic, one member of the public showed up. The health district and Grant County Emergency Management discussed preparation at the county level in the event of a pandemic.

Health Officer Alexander Brzezny said an epidemic is when more people get a virus in a community than expected, and a pandemic is on a worldwide scale.

The health district and Grant County Emergency Management are working to plan for all emergencies, not just a pandemic. Sam Lorenz, director of Grant County Emergency Management, said the hazards plan follows the same template as the state plan, which follows the federal plan. In the event of an emergency in Grant County, the county is in position to receive help from the state. The state can seek help from the federal government.

"We should not have a Katrina (like sized) problem with our planning," Lorenz said.

Emergency management is in the process of improving its plan. It also created a health plan to implement in the event of a health crisis.

"It's probably the most active planning that we've done in a long, long, long time," Lorenz said.

A food-born illness spread in Mattawa in 2003, and emergency management used the health plan, transporting 28 patients to the hospital. The plan still has problems, and emergency management is working through them, he said.

"The plan worked, and that was a good exercise for us," Lorenz said.

In the event of a pandemic reaching Grant County, triage centers would be established in Moses Lake, Ephrata, Quincy, Mattawa and Grand Coulee, Brzezny said. Those who are infected would be asked to go to the centers. Some would be sent home and some would be seen. Many people might not like going to a triage center rather than a hospital, which creates problems for planning, he said.

The location of Moses Lake's triage center is undetermined. Grand Coulee's center would likely be near its hospital. Ephrata's might be located near the Ephrata Recreation Center, and Quincy is looking at its new fire station.

All the cities to host triage centers met to conduct emergency planning.

Emergency management wants families to plan for about a week without help by stocking up on food and water in case of a flu pandemic or other natural disaster.

A citizens group is being trained to help in a crisis situation, Lorenz said.

The counties are working together because if an emergency strikes one area, resources would need to be delivered from other counties. If the flu pandemic hits, all the counties would be dealing with the same problems, Lorenz said.

Jackie Dawson, Region 7 epidemiologist covering fire districts 4, 5, 11 and 12, said people use the terms bird flu and pandemic interchangeably, but they are not the same.

Avian flu becomes a pandemic if it spreads worldwide through human contact. Currently, humans contract the virus after direct contact with birds. The virus is persisting instead of disappearing, she said. The good news is, humans don't always catch the virus even if birds are infected.

In Alaska, 13,000 birds were tested this year, none of which had Avian flu. Results are incomplete for the more than 500 tested in Washington, but so far, no cases are reported.

Brzezny said a bird with the virus needs only to cross the Bering Strait from Russia for it to enter America.

The health district is looking for volunteers who could help in an emergency. For more information, contact the health district at 509-766-7960.