APHA: GET READY FOR PANDEMIC FLU

 

# 491

 

 

Would you be ready if a flu pandemic or an outbreak of an infectious disease hit your community?

Do you know what to do if:

• Your schools, day care facilities, grocery stores and pharmacies close?
• Going to work and interacting with others would be a risk to your health?
• You had to stay in your house for weeks at a time?

 

 

The above questions are not mine. 

 

They come from the APHA (American Public Health Association) website on pandemic flu.   APHA isn't some fly-by-night organization.  Founded in 1872, the American Public Health Association (APHA) is the oldest, largest and most diverse organization of public health professionals in the world.

 

You should add the APHA flu site to your list, along with pandemicfu.gov, as resources for good, solid pandemic flu information.

 

Today, APHA released their prescription for pandemic preparedness.  This PDF File can be downloaded here.

 

 

APHA's recommendations include:

-- Increasing funding for states, localities, hospitals and public health labs to expand their capacity to respond to pandemic flu;

 

-- Increasing investment in the public health work force, so there are enough employees necessary to serve on the frontlines in preparing for and responding to a pandemic and annual seasonal epidemics;

 

-- Creating emergency Medicaid coverage to ensure that uninsured Americans will receive appropriate countermeasures and care in the event of pandemic flu;

 

-- Creating guidelines for the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions, including handwashing, "snow days," isolation and quarantine;

 

-- Creating new methods to purchase, distribute and track vaccines and antivirals;

 

-- Incorporating occupational and mental health issues, such as potential distress and sick leave from work, in pandemic planning and response efforts; and

 

-- Creating and implementing laws and policies that grant federal, state and local health officers the authority to make decisions about quarantine and isolation orders.

 

 

Additional resources available on their web site include:

 

Get The Facts

For the Public

• Pandemic Flu Fact Sheet (PDF )

• Emerging Infectious Diseases Fact Sheet (PDF )

• Fact Sheet on Preparing for Flu (PDF )
  - How it helps to prepare for natural and manmade disasters

For Policy-makers and the Media

• Pandemic Flu Fact Sheet (PDF )
• Bioterrorism Preparedness Fact Sheet (PDF )

 

 

Pandemic preparedness is now a mainstream issue.

 

And it's about time.