From Flu Wiki 2

Forum: Colorado Free Seminar Pandemic Influenza Bird Flu and You

28 August 2006

Too Much Anxiety Girl – at 11:08

This was in the Sunday, August 28 Denver Post. It was an ad about 6 in x 6 in.

Parker Adventist Hospital / Centura Health

PANDEMIC INFLUENZA, BIRD FLU AND YOU

WHAT: Pandemic and avian influenza are NOT the same as the seasonal flu. Learn the latest facts from two of the Tri-County Health Department’s leading experts on emergency preparedness. Thomas Butts, MSc. REHS, RHSP is an Emergency Management Coordinator who oversees bioterrorism, pandemic disease and hazard preparedness; Julie Uhernik, RN, MS, NCC is a Regional Emergency Planner. Come learn how to safeguard yourself and your family now.

WHEN: Tuesday, August 29 – 6 – 8 p.m.

WHERE: Parker Adventist Hospital, 9395 Crown Crest Blvd., Parker, CO 80138 (located at E-470 & Parker Road)

FREE. RSVP NOW! To register, call 303–269–4001.

Come to our Free Seminar. Hurry, Limited Seating Available. www.parkerhospital.org

Too Much Anxiety Girl – at 11:13

That would be Sunday, August 27. Sheesh!

Lovelander – at 17:27

OY…I’ve been out of touch and just saw this. Did anyone go? Was it any good?

29 August 2006

Texas… eyes are on you – at 00:50

Hope my state (Texas) gets wind of what other states are doing and follows suit.

EnoughAlready

pfwag – at 02:56

Want to bet they use the 2% death rate of the Spanish Flu as “worst case”?

Dennis in Colorado – at 09:19

TMAG, or anyone who attends tonight, please report here. I’ll also search for news stories tomorrow to see what (if anything) the press says about it.

ColoradoTomat 18:55

Are any peeps from the Denver/Littleton area going to attend? I have RSVP’d. I’d like to meet some other fluwikie’s in the area.

ColoradoTomat 18:59

Lovelander – at 17:27

OY…I’ve been out of touch and just saw this. Did anyone go? Was it any good?

BTW, the seminar is tonight, Tuesday August 29, I think, Lovelander you confused Too Much Anxiety Girl’s correction of the day she saw it in the paper as Sunday August 27 — when it was advertised.

Too Much Anxiety Girl – at 22:29

ColoradoTom – I just saw your post. I was there – sorry I missed the opportunity to talk to another Fluwikian.

Summary to follow in a little while.

Too Much Anxiety Girl – at 23:08

Summary of presentation by Tri-County Health: Understating Avian Influenza

The population of the Tri-County area is 1.1 million …. 27 folks attended this meeting. We still have a long way to go.

The first person who spoke briefly was the disaster planner for the hospital, and he said this about avian flu: “The more we know, the less we fear.” Good grief.

Mr. Butts spoke briefly and stated that right now, West Nile virus is more of a concern that avian flu.

Ms. Uhernik went through a fairly basic presentation, distinguishing the “stomach flu”, seasonal flu, pandemic flu, and the concern that the avian flu might go pandemic. Her main theme was to minimize the danger from the avian flu in order to, I believe, prevent people from panicking. However, no one in the room seemed panicked, in fact, most seemed fairly well informed. Both presenters emphasized that at the current time, there has been no sustained h2h transmission.

Mr. Butts gave the rest of the presentation, and showed that he was indeed concerned about the danger from the avian flu (contrary to what he said in his introduction).

Some of the points he touched on included that there had been no human cases in Vietnam this year due to vaccinating poultry (true?), two human vaccines for H5N1 were in development, and that vaccine technology was 40 years old and in need of new technology. No vaccine will be available for the first wave.

Talking about health care surge capacity, he used a CFR of 4.2% and was quickly called on it. He did say that no one knows what the CFR will be, and that was just one estimate. He said that the hospitals here could handle a mild pandemic similar to 1957, but would be overwhelmed by a severe pandemic.

On to personal preparedness, he gave the standard advice about 2 weeks of food, water, meds, and supplies. Someone in the audience quickly reminded him that he had just showed that each wave of the pandemic would last 6 – 8 weeks, so shouldn’t we have 6 – 8 weeks of supplies. He responded that many folks would have trouble (money, space, etc.) even putting together two weeks of supplies, and that they wanted to give folks an achievable goal.

When asked about masks, he said that unless they were fit tested, used for only 2 – 8 hours, and then properly disposed of, that they could easily do more harm than good. They emphasized good hygiene for most of us, and that PPE would be better used by HCW and law enforcement.

During Q&A, someone asked about Tamilflu, and he said that they do not recommend that individuals stockpile Tamilflu – it’s expensive, it expires, and they need it for the seasonal flu. Tamiflu resistance was not mentioned.

In response to a question, they also talked about maintaining infrastructure. Many services here are fragmented into Metro Districts, etc., but they are talking about it. The first problem will be getting in enough chlorine to disinfect water. I’ve mentioned this before – they can probably keep the water flowing, but we should all have a way and a plan to disinfect it for drinking.

Someone in the audience said that he was not worried about people that have only two weeks’ supplies, but rather about the folks that had nothing but a gun and bad intentions. Both presenters admitted that this was a problem, and that planning for a pandemic wasn’t going to solve all of society’s problems.

I think they both gave very honest responses, and quickly admitted where there were holes in the plan. At least they do HAVE a plan that they are sharing with us. There are a lot of unknowns, but we can plan for and do what we can for this or any other disaster, natural or man-made.

31 August 2006

Dennis in Colorado – at 14:23

Too Much Anxiety Girl – at 23:08

Thanks for the report.

ColoradoTomat 14:59

Too Much Anxiety Girl

Ditto, thanks for the report. I’ve been too busy to add any of my observations.

But I might add a comment from the gentleman who was “in transportation” and his statement of there being only 2 weeks worth of food on hand at anytime throughout the metro area in warehouses/stores, etc. is a concern to me. And that at present, there is a continual resupply of chlorine for water treatment where there is only 2 days worth on hand at any given moment.

That last statement is what caught my attention.

However, if the hammer is lowered and TPTB determine that H5N1 has arrived and are suggesting that people get as many supplies as possible, the 2 week on hand supply would be depleted in hours if all stocks were available to the public. I can’t even fathom the turmoil that would follow a statement like that.

(I was in the back row, green shirt. If you care to tell, where were you sitting?)

01 September 2006

Too Much Anxiety Girl – at 00:27

It is likely true about the two weeks of food, but I don’t think we’ll see an immediate crash of all food delivery systems. Some food is grown and prepared locally (farms, ranches, meat processing plants). That said, I think that once we enter a crisis, it would be best not to have to go to the grocery store, even to “top off” – I’d worry about coming into contact with sick people or folks already incubating the disease, and I’d worry about physical violence.

One of the most powerful lessons from Katrina was just how quickly the veneer of civilization wears off.

On the chlorine for the water supply, here are some comments by Chips Barry, made in April. I think it’s good that they acknowledge the problems they are facing.

http://mmrs.fema.gov/news/influenza/2006/apr/nflu2006-04-18.aspx

31 October 2006

Closed - Bronco Bill – at 21:12

Closed to maintain Forum speed.

Retrieved from http://www.fluwikie2.com/index.php?n=Forum.ColoradoFreeSeminarPandemicInfluenzaBirdFluAndYou
Page last modified on October 31, 2006, at 09:12 PM