York Town News
From the Manager's Desk...
Planning for a possible pandemic flu outbreak
By Town Manager Rob Yandow
Rob Yandow
A pandemic has been described as an outbreak of illness that affects the entire world. Typically, influenza (flu) is the illness associated with a pandemic. Pandemics are rare but recurring events that have typically occurred every 10 to 50 years, according to the Maine Flu Website (www.maineflu.gov). During the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, approximately 40 million people died worldwide, making it the most devastating infectious disease outbreak ever recorded.
The impact of the next influenza pandemic could have a devastating effect on the health and well being of the American public. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that, in the United States alone, up to 200 million people will be infected, 50 million people will require outpatient care, two million people will he hospitalized, and between 100,000 and 500,000 persons will die (State of Maine Draft Pandemic Influenza Plan). If these estimates are accurate, more that 2/3 of the people in the United States will be infected. Think of the impact this would have on our daily lives. The disruption in services would be dramatic across the private and public sectors to include local government, schools and health care facilities.
According to the Homeland Security Council's National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza, The current pandemic threat stems from an unprecedented outbreak of avian (bird) influenza in Asia and Europe, caused by the H5N1 strain of Influenza A virus. 200 million birds across Asia have died from the H5N1 strain but, more importantly, 121 people have been infected in four countries resulting in 62 deaths over the past two years. At the current time there is very limited human-to-human transmission; however it could evolve into a strain that can easily be passed among humans. It is unknown if the current H5N1 strain of virus will cause a pandemic; however due to the likelihood of mutations, it is believed that if it does not occur with this particular strain, a different virus will emerge and result in the next pandemic.
On May 30, I met with Dr. Henry Scipione, superintendent of schools, and Jud Knox, York Hospital administrator, to discuss an approach to this critically important issue. As a result of that discussion, we have scheduled a second meeting on June 28, which will include additional staff members from each organization. Our purpose is to develop a collaborative and proactive approach to dealing with a potential pandemic. We will not be able to prevent it and we will probably not be able to contain it. What we hope to accomplish is a method to develop a contingency operations plan, over and above our current emergency operations plan, and a mechanism to keep the public informed as best we can.
We will continue to be proactive in publishing information and in the very near future we will establish relevant links on the town of York website at www.yorkmaine.org to provide information as we accumulate it.
In the meantime, for more information I would recommend that you visit the following links: www.maineflu.gov www.whitehouse.gov/homeland/pandemic-influenza.html and www.pandemicflu.gov.
