|
|
March 11. 2007
12:00AM
Bird flu drill held at senior
center
Worcester prepares for the
worst
|
By Kate
Plourd SPECIAL TO THE TELEGRAM &
GAZETTE |
BOSTON— Last November,
635 elderly people filed into the
Worcester Senior Center to get their annual flu
shots. They were done in less than four hours. They didn’t know they were
part of a simulation of what would happen during a flu pandemic at one of
Worcester’s nine emergency dispensing
sites.
“We have 175,000 people in the city that would have to
receive a vaccination in the case of a pandemic flu,” said Karyn E. Card,
coordinator of Worcester Regional Medical Reserve Corps, the organization
that put on the drill.
The exercise was the first time volunteers
and first responders in Worcester collaborated to assess how they
would handle a flu outbreak. Public health officials and state legislators
are bringing the issue up, as well.
“I’m almost using the flu
pandemic as an excuse to prepare for a disaster,” state Rep. Peter J.
Koutoujian, D-Waltham, said at a legislative briefing last week. “We’re
using this as an excuse to put all the programs into place.”
Mr.
Koutoujian expects the issue of preparedness to come up quickly in the
Legislature this session with support from House Speaker Salvatore F.
DiMasi, D-Boston. Harry Cox, associate dean of public health at Boston
University, told the group that
statewide preparation, including education programs, is often overlooked
until it’s too late.
“The (bird flu) virus hasn’t taken the next
step to mutate, but when we’ve gotten to that point, then we have a flu
pandemic,” Mr. Cox said. “There are things to think about doing as a state
for something that is going to happen.”
Mr. Cox said a large number
of people who might be affected by a deadly flu outbreak would not be able
to work. He urged cities and towns to examine how they would operate
without many of their regular employees.
“Try to think about doing
your job with 40 percent less of you,” Mr. Cox said. “That’s going to be
difficult, especially in an emergency situation.”
He said the
mutual aid bill, drafted by Mr. Koutoujian, would allow public health
workers to help neighboring cities in the case of an emergency. Current
liability laws limit such a plan.
Mr. Koutujian said other states
don’t have restrictions because public health workers are managed by
larger county operations, compared to individual cities and towns in this
state.
Ms. Card said removing the restrictions would help her
agency and others.
“If the bird flu should hit, we know that 30
(percent) to 40 percent of the work force will be sick or taking care of
someone who’s sick,” Ms. Card said. “If we had mutual aid and I was out
sick, I know I could call someone from another city to take
over.”
Order the Telegram &
Gazette, delivered daily to your home or office! www.telegram.com/homedelivery
|