Aurora – Health organizations at both the state and federal levels have moved closer to readiness for a possible – though not imminent – avian flu pandemic, panelists told a seminar on avian influenza Saturday.
“Preparedness is a process, not an endpoint,” said Ned Calonge, medical director for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. “We’re so much farther ahead today than we were five years ago. But it doesn’t say we can’t be more prepared.”
About 75 people – almost all of them health-care workers – listened to 10 speakers address issues ranging from a scientific primer on the flu virus to ethical concerns to practical planning during the half-day event at the Fitzsimons campus.
They got a broad overview of federal and state plans, plus a glimpse of ongoing legal and ethical questions – many surrounding concerns over quarantines and prioritizing vaccine distribution.
“We wanted to give people a sense of what’s going on in preparing for avian influenza, and also emphasize the importance of involving the community and the role they’ll have in coming up with responses,” said Mark Yarborough, director of CU’s Center for Bioethics and Humanities, which hosted the seminar.
Although recent statistics have shown fewer than 150 proven cases of bird flu in humans worldwide, the high mortality rate – over 50 percent – has raised concern about the ability to fend off the virus if it spreads through human-to-human contact.
How concerned should Coloradans be? “We should be concerned enough to take appropriate steps to enhance preparedness,” Calonge said, “but not so concerned that you have untoward consequences.”
While families could prepare their households with emergency food and water in the event of a quarantine, he said, stockpiling medication or taking turkey off the Thanksgiving menu serves no useful purpose.
“Discomfort comes with not knowing what’s going on,” Calonge said. “Once you know, that knowledge gives you comfort.”
Speakers noted two particularly useful websites: www.pandemicflu.gov and www.cdc.gov.
They also stressed the importance of greater community involvement in pandemic planning. Health-care provider Kaiser Permanente and the Red Cross offer resources to fill gaps in the public-health plan, representatives said.
An organizational network among black churches throughout Denver could provide logistical support for a traditionally underserved community, noted Grant Jones, executive director of the Metro Denver Black Church Initiative, which focuses on health concerns.
Although some claim that well-publicized concerns over avian flu amount to little more than crying wolf, Jane Wilson of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services noted that it’s still a good idea to have an emergency plan in place.
“Remember, ultimately in the parable, the wolf did show up,” Wilson said. “But we could be the first society that’s prepared for an epidemic.”
