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<B><font size=+1 color=green><center>Preparedness for killer flu urged</font>
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
Union Leader Staff
May 27 2006
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Manchester – With the world on guard against another pandemic, possibly from the H5N1 virus infecting birds, federal and state officials yesterday urged action, but not alarm.
“It’s a time for us to be inspiring preparedness, but not panic,” U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt told the more than 200 health and safety experts, lawmakers and community leaders at the state’s pandemic planning summit hosted by Gov. John Lynch. </b>
Leavitt acknowledged many people question whether concern about the deadly bird flu triggering the next pandemic is just “Y2K all over again.
“Is this the little boy who cried wolf? May I say, I hope so,” said the former three-term governor of Utah.
But pandemics have been a biological fact of life throughout human history and another is inevitable, even if the culprit turns out to be something other than the H5N1 virus infecting wild fowl and poultry, he said.
And Leavitt said the nation is not as prepared as it should be to cope with the social and economic upheaval and surge in demand for health care the next pandemic would bring.
He warned against relying solely on federal and state governments to battle the next global killer flu given their limited resources.
Rather, this is a war that will be won by foot soldiers in the field — individual families, cities and towns, local businesses and schools — whose preparations now will be crucial to beating back, or at least containing, an outbreak, state and federal officials said.
“Any community that fails to prepare with the expectation or the illusion that the federal government or, for that matter, the state government, can come to their rescue. . . will be sadly mistaken,” Leavitt said.
Health officials advised residents to stockpile non-perishable foods, prescription medications and drinking water and plan for child care, given schools will be closed for weeks. More suggestions may be found at pandemicflu.gov.
There have been three pandemics in the last century, the most serious of which was the Spanish Flu of 1918-1919, which killed nearly 40 million people worldwide, said Admiral John O. Agwunobi, assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The avian flu’s strong genetic and clinical similarities to the Spanish Flu make it especially worrisome, he said.
Still, the H5N1 virus has not proven itself capable of sustained, efficient human-to-human transmission that would classify it as a pandemic, Agwunobi said.
Agwunobi said it’s “entirely likely” a bird infected with H5N1 will make it to U.S. shores.
“But that wouldn’t mean we are any closer to a pandemic,” he said. “For pandemic to occur, it’s about humans, not birds.”
Gov. Lynch stressed the need for all state agencies to be prepared for a possible pandemic.
“It is clear to me . . . that an unconstrained outbreak would be a catastrophe,” he said.
New Hampshire was the first state in the country to conduct statewide pandemic preparedness drills, has a comprehensive response plan, trained emergency responders, and now is working to ensure local communities and the region have their own plans in place, he said.
Lynch said he already spoke with Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas about expanding drills to include the region, noting the pressure a surge of out-of-state residents fleeing to New Hampshire would place on the state.
“If there is a surge coming out of Massachusetts, we need to be prepared for it,” the governor said.
Leavitt identified schools, businesses and hospitals as weak points in the emergency planning process.
State Health and Human Services Commissioner John Stephen said the state’s schools have emergency plans as part of the “all-hazards” approach that encompasses anything from a hurricane to a terrorist attack.
But Stephen acknowledged there is a need for businesses — particularly small- and medium-sized companies — to plan better.
Stephen said the state recently got $813,000 to plan for a pandemic, most of which will be distributed at the local level.
