flu exercise in delaware

   Flu exercise raises questions
Del. emergency officials probe problems arising from worst-case scenario
By LULADEY B. TADESSE
The News Journal

03/25/2006
Imagine that a ship carrying exotic animals from the Philippines gets infected with a mutated, highly contagious version of deadly avian flu during its voyage to Brazil. In a matter of weeks the disease spreads quickly to South and Central America, eventually making its way to the United States, infecting more than 1 million U.S. citizens.

Is the country, or the state of Delaware, prepared to handle such an avian flu pandemic?

Fifty-four National Guard units around the country, including Delaware's, as well as the state's emergency management agency and public health officials held a table-top exercise on pandemic influenza Friday to answer that question. But what officials were able to come up with was more questions than answers.

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"We find more problems than we have solutions today," said H. Stevens Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, who hosted the exercise from Washington via teleconference.

As of now, the lethal version of avian flu, known as H5N1, that is spreading around the world is primarily a disease of birds. Although it kills more than 50 percent of the humans it infects, it has not mutated into a form that can be passed easily from person to person. So far, there have been 186 cases of people infected with H5N1 and 105 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.

But groups considered first responders in case of a pandemic -- including the National Guard in Delaware and health officials -- and others are beginning to plan a response to an outbreak.

Friday, the groups were asked to respond to a theoretical worst-case scenario -- an avian flu pandemic that cripples the country. But what was revealed was the need for more preparation for basic problems, such as how to deliver water and food to citizens while protecting the first responders from exposure.

Despite the questions, one thing is clear: individual states must take responsibility for themselves. If the disease spreads nationwide, the federal government will likely be too overwhelmed to respond in a timely manner, officials said.

"Local preparedness is the foundation of pandemic readiness," said U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt in a press conference on avian flu earlier this week. "Any community that fails to prepare with the expectation that the federal government will at the last moment be able to come to the rescue will be tragically wrong, not because the federal government lacks will, not because we lack wallet, but because there is no way in which 5,000 different communities can be responded to simultaneously, which is a unique characteristic of a human pandemic."

The federal government has begun organizing summits throughout the country which will enable federal and state officials to discuss strategies for a potential pandemic. Delaware's public health officials have had a practice run and plan to hold another this summer.

"You plan for the worst," said Jamie Turner, head of Delaware Emergency Management Agency, the lead agency in the state in case of a pandemic.

"It was an excellent ,thought-provoking exercise," said Maj. Gen. Frank Vavala, head of the Delaware National Guard. "I think we all learned a great deal and we have an awful lot to learn."

Contact Luladey B. Tadesse at 324-2789 or