The entire healthcare system in the United States is prepared for the Swine Flu if it becomes a national epidemic. Many organizations are working with the CDC in order to keep updated on the latest information about this influenza virus.
IBHS Cautions Businesses to Prepare for Flu Pandemic; Provides Free Self-Assessment Tool to Rate Readiness
The Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) is cautioning businesses and nonprofit organizations to examine their ability to operate in the event of a flu pandemic.
With the federal government declaring Swine Flu a public-health emergency, IBHS says it would be wise to prepare now for the possibility of closures or other impacts a pandemic could have on operations.
“Evaluating specific risks and planning well beforehand for a variety of potential emergencies that could disrupt day-to-day business is critical, no matter how big or small a company may be,” states IBHS President and CEO Julie Rochman. “Fortunately, most catastrophes can be managed with advance, effective preparation – and that means having a well-thought out action plan with specific, appropriate policies, resources and contingencies.”
The Top 5 IBHS pandemic preparedness steps include:
1. Determine when to curtail employee travel, domestically and
internationally.
2. Develop business continuity policies that provide work-at-home options.
3. Address sick leave policies, since people with swine flu or those
attending to relatives may need to be on leave longer that the current
policy allows.
4. Consider the impact a shutdown of public transportation or the loss of
basic utilities would have.
5. Determine at what point the organization would need to close its doors.
IBHS has created a self-assessment tool for business owners and managers who can rate their readiness for a flu pandemic by answering nine basic questions. http://www.disastersafety.org/resource/resmgr/pdfs/pandemic_flu.pdf
Trust for America’s Health Applauds U.S. Response to Swine Flu
Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) today commended the Administration for its fast and effective response to the swine flu outbreak.
In order to continue to respond to this swine flu outbreak and to continue and improve preparations and the capacity to respond to other potential pandemic outbreaks, such as the H5N1 “bird flu,” TFAH recommends:
— Completing the funding to implement the National Strategy for Pandemic
Influenza. Former President Bush originally requested $7.1 billion to
carry out research and development for vaccinations, pharmaceuticals,
and medical devices needed to respond to a pandemic. $870 million of
this has never been funded. This funding was originally included in
both the FY 2008 budget and proposed 2009 stimulus bill, but was
removed each time before the bills’ final passage.
— With more than $1 billion of HHS funding, six companies are in various
stages of implementing commercial-scale production of cell-based
methods and/or expanding their vaccine capacity using eggs. By 2011,
U.S. based vaccine production capacity is expected to be at a point in
which it can generate enough pandemic influenza vaccine for every
American within six months of the time that the pandemic virus is
identified, according to the most recent Pandemic Planning Update from
HHS. However, the U.S. will not reach that capacity without completion
of the initial investment.
— Replenishing and building the Strategic National Stockpile. Purchasing
antiviral medications, vaccines, and equipment for the stockpile
should be a federal responsibility. Responding to this outbreak will
require using a significant portion of the currently stockpiled
Tamiflu(R) and other medical equipment, such as respirator masks.
These medications and equipment will need to be restocked. In
addition, the stockpile has existing shortfalls in the number of
masks, respirators, and medications needed to respond to this and
other possible pandemics, which must be completed to be prepared for
the possibility of other strains of flu.
— At the end of 2008, the Strategic National Stockpile reportedly
contained 104 million N95 respirators; 51.6 million surgical masks; 20
million syringes for pre-pandemic vaccine; 4,000 ventilators.
— Purchasing antiviral medications should become solely a federal
responsibility. Under the plan from the previous Administration,
states were expected to purchase a portion of the antiviral
medications that would be needed to protect citizens in their
states, through a program that included 25 percent subsidy from
the federal government. While the federal government has purchased
enough antivirals to cover 50 million Americans, as of October
2008, states only had purchased 22 million courses of antivirals,
which is nine million short of the goal, leaving Americans in some
states more vulnerable than others.
— Providing resources for state and local health departments to
adequately prepare for outbreaks. State and local officials are the
front line responders to outbreaks, yet they have not received any
federal funding for pandemic flu preparedness since FY 2006. $350
million is needed annually to adequately maintain state and local
pandemic preparedness activities.
— All 50 states and D.C. have a pandemic flu preparedness plan.
— All 50 states and D.C. have adequate plans to receive and
distribute emergency vaccines, antidotes, pharmaceuticals, and
medical supplies from the SNS, based on a review by CDC.
— All 50 states and D.C. have increased or maintained rates for
vaccinating adults ages 65 and older for seasonal flu, which is a
key indicator for showing how well states could vaccinate
individuals in an emergency.
— All but three states reported that their public health
laboratories meet the expectations of their state’s pandemic flu
plan (as of November 2008).
— Increase support for the Global Disease Detection (GDD) program. In
2007, the GDD program received $33.7 million in funding. If the
funding was increased to $55 million, four additional regional
detection centers could be established to improve global disease
outbreak detection and control.
Some additional ongoing challenges for pandemic preparedness that TFAH has identified in recent analyses include:
— Maintaining real-time disease detection and surveillance capabilities;
— Managing mass casualty care if there is a major surge in patients at
hospitals and treatment facilities;
— Ensuring the ability to swiftly and safely distribute and administer
medical treatments and vaccines;
— Reaching and providing special services for at-risk and vulnerable
populations, including children, the elderly, and low-income
communities;
— Bolstering the public health workforce with enough experts and
officials, many state and local health departments have experienced
workforce cuts during the recession; and
— Protecting health officials and volunteer medical providers during
emergencies.
TFAH’s annual health emergency preparedness report, Ready or Not? Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism, and a report that examined the potential impact of a severe pandemic outbreak, Pandemic Flu and the Potential for U.S. Economic Recession, are available on TFAH’s Web site: www.healthyamericans.org. Also, brochures about how individuals, businesses, community-based organizations and the medical community are available at the Web site.
Trust for America’s Health is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to saving lives by protecting the health of every community and working to make disease prevention a national priority.
Travellers to Mexico so far Undeterred by Swine Flu Outbreak
Data from leading flight search company Skyscanner (http://www.Skyscanner.net) shows that travellers planning trips to Mexico have so far been undeterred by the outbreak of swine flu influenza announced by Mexico’s Federal Health Ministry on the 22nd April.
“Dire predictions have already been made about the impact that this will have on tourism, but the number of Skyscanner users searching for flights to Mexico has remained stable in the days since news emerged of the outbreak,” said Skyscanner director and co-founder Barry Smith.
“We would have expected to see some negative impact by now, but it may be that travellers are reassured by the fact that the outbreak is largely concentrated in Mexico City – a two hour flight from the coastal resorts – and by the fact that the Foreign Office, World Health Organisation and the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention have not yet made recommendations that people stay away. We’ll get a clearer picture in the next few days as the news spreads and the implications for travellers are fully understood.”
Skyscanner is the most powerful and flexible flight search engine in Europe, providing instant online comparison on flight prices for over 670,000 routes on over 600 airlines. With Skyscanner, users can browse without having to enter specific dates or even destinations, and Skyscanner is available in 20 different languages including French, German and Spanish.
Swine Flu: Infection Control in Hospitals Will Be Critical
In response to confirmed cases of swine flu in Mexico, Canada, and the United States, European Union health officials are advising against travel to North America. At airports in Japan and several other Asian countries, thermal scanners are being used to identify fever among passengers from North America.
But in the U.S. the disease is already among us. The severity and extent are unknown. The SARS outbreak (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in 2003 teaches that rigorous infection control in hospitals may be key to limiting deaths from swine flu in the U.S. Much will depend on what hospitals do when the first seriously ill victims arrive.” If hospitals have effective infection controls in place, the disease can be prevented from spreading to visitors, healthcare workers and their families,” warns Betsy McCaughey, Ph.D., and Chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths (RID), a national organization that educates the public and medical community about preventing infection. McCaughey explains that “77% of the people who contracted SARS in the Canadian outbreak were patients, visitors or workers in hospitals. SARS was almost entirely a hospital infection epidemic.”
SARS — four letters that filled the headlines in the spring of 2003, and then disappeared. “A report issued after the fact by the government of Ontario (The SARS Commission, Spring of Fear, December 2006) shows how hospitals in one city thwarted an epidemic while hospitals in another city made deadly mistakes” says McCaughey, an expert on preventing infection.
Many hospitals in the U.S. are under-prepared for a similar challenge. As many as ten percent of patients contract infections in the hospital, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Bacteria such as MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and Clostridium difficile race through hospitals, spread by unwashed hands and unclean equipment. How can hospitals that are failing to prevent ordinary infections spread by touch contain a new, unknown virus that can spread whenever someone coughs or sneezes?
“The best defense against swine flu and other unknown pathogens is rigorous hospital hygiene and routine infection prevention. That is the lesson of SARS,” says McCaughey.
Dr. McCaughey is available to speak about the precautions that should be taken in hospitals, schools, day care centers, nursing homes and other places where the disease can spread easily.
Betsy McCaughey, Ph.D., is founder of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths and former Lt. Governor of New York State.
http://www.hospitalinfection.org/
Pennsylvania Working Closely With Federal Partners to Contain Impact of Swine Flu
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is working with federal officials to contain the impact of an outbreak of swine flu in Mexico that resulted in the declaration of a national public health emergency in the United States.
The Department of Health is working to educate the public and health care providers of recommended steps to prepare for potential cases of swine influenza in Pennsylvania.
The Department of Health has notified health care providers across Pennsylvania to be watchful for patients with influenza-like illness who may have been exposed to the new swine flu strain and to immediately inform the local health department of any suspected cases. The department will assist all health care providers in evaluating the patients, recommending control measures, and assisting in specimen collection and testing when indicated.
This notification follows confirmation of a new strain of swine influenza A/H1N1 virus in Mexico and five locations in the U.S., including New York and Ohio. To date, all U.S. cases were “mild” with only one person requiring brief hospitalization.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, swine influenza A/H1N1 is a new strain of influenza that has not previously been detected in swine or humans. The virus has also been confirmed in Canada and Mexico. It is still safe to eat pork and pork products.
The Department of Health provided information to all of the state’s health care providers and hospitals late Friday regarding the swine flu, including how to quickly report possible cases and how to submit samples for testing. Anyone who has traveled to or from the affected areas and has a respiratory illness should contact their health care provider or local health department before seeking health care.
Swine influenza is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza viruses. Outbreaks of swine flu happen regularly in pigs. Before the current outbreak, people rarely got swine flu, and usually only if they were in very close proximity to infected pigs. However, during the current outbreak, the virus is able to spread from person-to-person.
Symptoms of swine flu in people are similar to those of regular or seasonal flu and include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some with swine flu also have reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Although winter is over, there is still a low level of seasonal influenza occurring in the state.
There is no vaccine available at this time, but the swine flu can be treated with certain antiviral drugs. Persons with swine flu are contagious for up to seven days or longer after the onset of illness, so it is important to take the following steps to prevent spreading the virus to others:
— Stay home when you are sick to avoid spreading illness to others;
— Cough or sneeze into the bend of your elbow or a tissue and properly
dispose of used tissues;
— Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and warm water or
use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer;
— Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth;
— Stay healthy by eating a balanced diet, drinking plenty of water and
getting plenty of rest and exercise; and
— Seek care if you have influenza-like illness.
The CDC is asking that those individuals who have a recent history of travel and experience mild, flu-like symptoms to stay home. However, if you feel your symptoms worsen or become severe, call or visit your health care provider.
For more information on Swine Influenza A/H1N1, contact the Department of Health at 1-877-PA-HEALTH or visit www.health.state.pa.us.