President Bush has outlined a formidable plan for responding to an avian flu pandemic. How it’s implemented will be key should it ever be needed.
The new bird flu hasn’t yet spread from person to person, but many scientists expect it to do so soon. Last century’s three deadly flu pandemics all were avian strains, including the 1918 outbreak that killed 20 million people worldwide – in an age when travel between continents took days. The next pandemic may be just a plane ride away, noted PBS’s series “RX for Survival.”
Bush articulated a textbook public health strategy that’s been used to corral smallpox and other infectious diseases: Recognize the illness in its early stages. Identify anyone with whom the infected patient had contact and vaccinate those people. Then locate anyone those people contacted and inoculate them, too. Soon, people will get vaccinated before they’re exposed to the germs, so the disease should stop spreading. Bush also highlighted the need to protect the medical workers on whom the plan depends.
The National Institutes of Health have a prototype vaccine based on the existing avian virus but can’t predict which human flu the virus will combine with to make the anticipated deadly new influenza. Bush called for $2.8 billion for research into how to quickly develop vaccines and $2.2 billion for other drug costs.
Those are part of a $7.1 billion package Bush will seek to address the bird flu threat. Only $583 million would go to planning for a pandemic, including just $100 million to help states prepare their response plans. Yet Bush and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt admit that local and state agencies are the first defense against the new flu. Congress needs to offer adequate aid for them to handle the task.
Colorado already is preparing. In 2000, the legislature told the Department of Public Health and Environment to craft plans to deal with bioterrorism and natural epidemics. Recently, the agency gave local health officials a draft bird flu response plan. Last year, the agency conducted an exercise by giving flu vaccines to more than 8,000 people in La Junta. Mass inoculations would be tougher by far in the midst of the kind of public panic that marks epidemics.
Richard Vogt, executive director of the Tri-County Health Department (Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties) says in a previous job, he handled an epidemic that could have panicked a community but didn’t. “My experience has been that if you provide clear leadership and explain to the public why you are suggesting certain steps … people will respond favorably.”
The federal plan is a good start.
