Montgomery County has taken more steps than most jurisdictions in the country to prepare for a possible pandemic flu outbreak, including training sessions to teach medical professionals how to keep facilities open during these disasters.
Montgomery County Director of Communicable Disease and Epidemiology Carol Jordan said it’s the next logical step after similar sessions held earlier this year for the business segment of Montgomery County.
The large emphasis the county has placed on pandemic flu readiness is on top of standard disaster preparation for other phenomenon such as hurricanes and terrorist attacks, because there are added concerns with pandemic flu outbreaks, according to Jordan.
“In a hurricane, it hits in one place at one time and then you’re over and done with it so people can go back to work,” she said. “With pandemic flu, it probably will hit in multiple places in the county at the same time. Each wave is expected to last eight to 12 weeks, which is a long time to have people out of work.”
Jordan said the biggestdanger is that pandemic flu cases tend to begin as health problems and then grow into economic shortfalls that cripple businesses and even whole communities.
By helping agencies avoid reaching this point, it can benefit the entire county.
County officials are trying to get area medical centers to prioritize their personnel, figure out what services they can keep up over the phone and beef up their tech support.
“We hope to give people the impetus to really start thinking about pandemic flu in terms of their whole operation,” Jordan said. “We’re going to need them to be a part of the response. They need to be considering this.”
In terms of funding, Montgomery County this year received about $250,000 for pandemic flu preparedness from the State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which pays for nurses and health planners brought in to help with special planning projects, part-time communications specialists, Web site enhancement and staff development and training.
