Bird flu response plan sought

June 30, 2006

By JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman

MAT-SU - After hearing for two full days about how to respond if a deadly outbreak of pandemic flu swept through the Valley, Mat-Su community leaders walked away with a few concrete ideas and lots of questions.

Several dozen local officials, leaders and emergency responders gathered at the Central Mat-Su Fire Station in Wasilla to participate in a mock scenario.

The workshop assumed a human case of the deadly avian flu surfaced in Toronto in May 2007.

A month later, according to the scenario, the virus arrives in Anchorage via a Toronto man who happened to make contact with a group of tourists. The tourists are now visiting Palmer.

While the scene was fake, the assembled group of state, borough and private individuals were dead serious.

Pete Petram, an emergency management consultant for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, helped lead the final session of the three-day summit.

The goal of the gathering was to prepare Mat-Su residents for a worst-case scenario wherein the notorious avian influenza virus H5N1 morphs into a dangerous strain that easily transfers from human to human.

While the scare has yet to evolve into a large-scale human threat, advanced preparation is still warranted, Petram argued.

&#8220If public health officials are telling me that we've got a level of concern about this, I think it would be irresponsible on my part not to consider there is a possible threat there,” he explained during a break in the summit. &#8220Our disaster preparedness is a what-if scenario - it's not meant to scare the public or cry wolf.”

The summit was part of a statewide effort, to foster disaster preparedness in communities across Alaska. Mat-Su was the seventh community out of 13 scheduled stops. State officials will schedule more visits as requested.

Health officials across the globe are also watching the H5N1 virus closely.

According to the latest information from the World Health Organization, there have been 228 confirmed cases of people having contracted the avian influenza virus. Of those, 130 have died.

Most recently, the Ministry of Health in Indonesia confirmed the country's 51st case of human infection last week.

The fatal case occurred in a 13-year-old boy from South Jakarta. He developed symptoms on June 9, one week after helping his grandfather slaughter diseased chickens at the family home. The boy was hospitalized June 13 and died the next day.

With widespread global travel, the virus could travel quickly if it became easily transferable from human to human. For now, however, it is mostly a bird problem and rarely infects humans. It has yet to show up in either North or South America.

Even if nothing happens, many workshop participants were grateful for the chance to address emergency response on a large scale.

William Pepper, an religious leader at Church on the Rock in Wasilla, attended the event to find out how his church could help prepare the congregation in case the threat did materialize. If it doesn't, he still learned some valuable lessons.

&#8220We have earthquakes, fires, floods, and 90 percent of this preparation would be valuable in any of those situations,” he said. &#8220I've lived here 30 years, we've had several disasters. We had the flood years ago in Willow, the Millers Reach Fire and we've just escaped serious volcanic eruptions.”

The gist of Thursday's discussion centered on getting accurate information to the public.

All agreed that establishing a reliable chain of command is key to any disaster response. That means knowing where to turn for breaking news, how to verify the reports, and how to respond quickly and efficiently.

With all the stories of impending doom, Johnny Murdock cautioned against crying wolf too soon and losing public faith if a real threat does occur. Murdock is a fire service-area training specialist for the Mat-Su Borough.

&#8220You got to walk a really fine edge here,” he told colleagues. &#8220If we get people stirred up and it doesn't come, then we are dead in the water.”

For more public health questions, human health concerns or information on how to plan for pandemic flue, people may call 1-888-972-6358. More information is also available on the state Web site at www.pandemicflu.alaska.gov.

Contact Joel Davidson at

352-2266 or joel.davidson@ frontiersman.com.