The threat of a global influenza outbreak is simmering, and public health officials in New Hampshire are preparing for it to boil over.
A strain of avian flu that has been sweeping through Asian poultry farms has made the leap to Europe.
And health officials expect the bug eventually to reach the states.
Today (Tuesday) the state’s Department of Health and Human Services held the second in a series of legislative briefings on how the state is gearing up to combat a potential flu pandemic.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Kerry Grens reports.
The strain of bird flu called H5N1 has infected about one hundred people since 1997.
An increase in human cases and a rapid spread in birds throughout a number of Asian countries in recent years has got the epidemic alarm bells ringing.
State Senator Andre Martel made no attempt to down play concerns as he introduced the legislative meeting.
Martel: I think that you’re going to find that we are now looking at something that could be the biggest crisis to hit the state, probably the region, probably the whole country if you think about it as a whole since the influenzas of the early nineteen hundreds and eighteen hundreds.
Flu outbreaks of the last century killed millions.
The worst was the Spanish flu in 1918 that killed tens of millions of people worldwide.
So when a new strain of flu comes on the scene, like this Asian avian strain, public health officials pull out all the stops.
The state’s Division of Public Health has ramped up preparedness efforts in the last few months.
It has conducted educational sessions for public health offices around the state and training for flu response staff.
The Division’s director, MaryAnne Cooney, has also planned an outbreak drill for November.
Cooney says the drill’s first step is to practice mass distribution of a medicine stockpile.
Cooney: On the 17th we will enact a drill where the Governor, Commissioner Stephen and others request, accept, and then the national guard disperses—in a drill—the national stockpile. Without giving a lot of details, because that is part of the drill itself, we are hopeful that we will be able to identify and learn just exactly not only what we have in place but what we need to prepare for should we have an avian influenza case in New Hampshire.
The three-day drill will also include making sure hospitals can handle a surge of flu patients and that communications with media outlets and other public health offices are in place.
Cooney says some preparations—like making sure large numbers of people can be isolated and quarantined quickly—might require some legislative changes.
Cooney: We have isolation and quarantine laws now. But there happens to be a waiting period for when that particular individual’s case is heard in the courts, which could be a potential problem if you’re talking about large quantities of people that may have the ability to spread the disease to others.
As it is now, the virus can’t easily move from human to human.
Most victims have contracted it from poultry.
But it is extremely virulent, having killed half of the people that have contracted it so far.
State medical director William Kassler says it’s only a matter of time before the virus mutates into a form that can be passed among people.
Kassler: We don’t have any way of scientifically predicting when that will occur. We do know that it will occur. We historically get periodic waves of influenza pandemic, mostly from avian sources, but I have no way of saying with any reliability that it will be this year, or the next, or the year after.
Currently an avian flu vaccine is being tested in clinical trials, and Kassler says if it turns out to work, the FDA and manufacturers will try to get it quickly to the public.
Even without a vaccine, Kassler is confident the state’s preparations will keep things under control.
Kassler: We’ve known about this since the seventies and eighties because it’s a very periodic thing. Every ten twenty years we get a global pandemic of influenza. So we developed out first preparedness plan seven years ago. So we’ve been planning for this for a long time and we’ll do the best we can. I think that we have a head start and I am very optimistic that while it is serious, we need to do more, we’re not getting caught unaware.
The Division of Public Health will get a chance to test Kassler’s optimism during the pandemic drill in November.
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Are the people of New Hampshire preparing to receive this "clinical trials stage" avian flu vaccine, as part of the November disaster drill?
I am not sure what is actually going on, but I think it is important to make clear, that the H5N1 strain HAS NOT BEEN FOUND TO COMMUNICATE HUMAN TO HUMAN, yet. It is an avian virus which can jump from bird to human. The CDC, Medline research abstracts, have reported that UNTIL the virus actually 'associates' itself with a human influenza virus, while the human is infected with a human influenza virus, there is NO CAPABILITY of creating an "AVIAN FLU VACCINE FOR HUMANS", only for BIRDS.
So, my question is this: Who is the clinical trial being conducted on, and WHAT is in the vaccine they are proposing to use? H5N1?
I want to know why all the hype about a virus that has been around since 1912? And why now is this strain, although jumping from bird to human, now deemed an emergency.
What about West Nile? Lots more people get bitten by mosquitos than US citizens who are playing with chickens or wild birds. ? West Nile traveled the entire US map in less than 5 years. No, it is not human to human contagion. Neither is H5N1!!
Just what is going on?