# 2167
This is an exercise. It is not real.
The Southeastern District Health Department of Idaho continues their online pandemic exercise with the release of preliminary infection rates in Southeastern Idaho.
Follow this link to participate in this exercise, or to read the entire scenario and the comments. Be sure to go back to the beginning of the exercise (July 14th) if you haven't been following this exercise from the start, or to catch up on new comments.
July 22: Scenario Update
July 22, 2008This is an exercise. It is not real.
The influenza pandemic is here in Southeastern Idaho. We are currently seeing a 9% attack rate, meaning 9% of the population is sick today in the exercise. Of that 9% of the population, half will feel that they need to go to the hospital. Of that half, about 11% will need to be hospitalized. The sickness numbers you are seeing represent one-third of the number because the overall number represents three waves.
We expect this to increase dramatically in the next day or two. The health district is recommending that everyone who is sick or has symptoms of being sick should STAY HOME. This is called voluntary isolation. If you are sick or have symptoms of the flu, limiting your exposure to others can help slow the spread of the flu to others. If you must go out into public, a mask is recommended. A mask on a sick person will minimize the spread of infection from the sick person to others. People who are not sick can wear masks, too, but there is no scientific studies that prove it helps or doesn’t help (science has not determined effectiveness of masks, see previous post “Do I Need A Mask?”).
At this point in the scenario, the Southeastern District Health Department has ramped up the public information efforts via news outlets and hotlines. We also have contacted all county emergency managers to ensure they know a pandemic is imminent and near in their communities. Specific measures for staff and hospital infection control are recommended to hospitals. The health district Emergency Operations Center would be open, with just the operations section at this time (and the other sections on standby). We would be discussion other specific actions with the school districts and local businesses.
This is an exercise. It is not real.
