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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, June 15, 2006
| Contact: |
Dr.
Diana Yu,
Thurston
County
Health Officer, 360-786-5581 |
|
Sherri McDonald, Director Public Health and Social Services,
360-786-5581 |
Community
Called Upon to Prepare for Pandemic Flu
OLYMPIA
– More than 75 people gathered recently at Thurston County Public Health and
Social Services to begin community wide preparations for the possibility of a
pandemic flu outbreak. Thurston
County Health Officer Dr. Diana Yu and Health Director Sherri McDonald helped
to organize the half-day meeting. Yu
says it’s imperative that the entire community gets behind the effort.
“Scientists all over the world are monitoring the current bird flu
outbreak to gauge whether it might become a human to human flu strain.
If it does, the preparations we make now will be extremely valuable as
to our ability to handle the impacts from such a pandemic.”
Currently, there is no pandemic (widespread,
human to human influenza outbreak of a new virus) flu outbreak but many
authorities say it is a matter of time until a bird (or other animal) flu
mutates into a brand new strain that passes easily from human to human.
There would be no vaccine against such an illness and may not be one
for many, many months. In the meantime, the pandemic could spread worldwide,
carrying with it the possibility of millions of deaths.
Thurston County Health Director Sherri McDonald
says a third or more of the workforce could be absent in such a scenario, as
ill persons stay home and well persons stay home to take care of the sick or
to avoid getting sick. At some
point during a pandemic, schools, workplaces, public events and the like may
be shut down. “If we begin work
now on what steps we need to take together to accommodate the impacts of such
a widespread outbreak, then we can discover how best to react and what we need
to do to take care of ourselves and each other. The good news is this kind of
planning will also be valuable for many different kinds of emergencies and
natural disasters, not just pandemic flu.”
A large variety of community members attended the
“Call to Action” meeting on June 9th.
They were divided into several groups for planning including-
·
Community Service Organizations.
·
Clinics and medical care facilities.
·
Public Information and Schools personnel.
·
Hospital officials.
·
Emergency pre-hospital personnel.
Those attending will continue planning for
several months to come. McDonald
says others in the community who would like to help can contact Debbie Trees
at 360-786-5581 ext 1 7062# or by e-mail at treesd@co.thurston.wa.us
.
County residents who want more information on
pandemic flu preparations for themselves or their families, can visit the
county’s Health Department web site at http://www.co.thurston.wa.us/health/Influenza/Pandemic.html
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