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Q-C gets ready for flu crisis

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By Ann McGlynn | Wednesday, August 02, 2006 | No comments posted

One patient was a 27-year-old nurse practitioner who came in feeling dizzy.

Another was a young sheriff’s deputy with a cough, muscle aches and a fever.

A third was an elderly woman, a retired teacher who was confined to a wheelchair.

At a mass flu medication dispensing drill Tuesday at the RiverCenter in Davenport, each was treated differently. The nurse practitioner was sent to receive a more complete medical evaluation, the deputy sent to a designated area for people with flu symptoms to get medication and the retired teacher was turned away.

The “Katz Flu” scenario played out as public health officials, health-care workers and volunteers simulated what would happen if a mass flu vaccination became necessary. Dr. Louis Katz serves at medical director of the Scott County Health Department.

The first priority people to receive antiviral medication, officials said, would be those experiencing symptoms, people in specific jobs deemed essential and their families.

The “essential” professions include police officers, firefighters, medics, dispatchers, health-care workers, hospital staff members, lab staff, sanitation employees, health department workers, county facility staff and utility workers.

“Every drill we do, we learn a little bit more and building on it,” said Amy Thoreson, a Scott County Health Department public information officer who helped disseminate information to the news media. The health department sponsored the event.

In the event of a real massive flu outbreak, residents would enter the building and give basic information to a triage staff stationed near the door. They then would be placed in two lines: people showing symptoms and people without symptoms.

Patients who met the criteria for receiving Tamiflu medication — in Tuesday’s drill, it was M&M candies — were sent to two separate areas depending on their symptoms or lack of them.

The simulation allows officials to try out agreements between agencies and learn lessons large and small, including whether more garbage cans are needed and whether supplies are readied in the best way possible, Thoreson said.

For the next drill, leaders will look to recruit more volunteers to act as patients in order to get a feel for a larger-scale event said Thoreson and Larry Barker, health department director.

“This is a good test,” Barker said. “We need to stress our system.”

Ann McGlynn can be contacted at (563) 383-2336 or amcglynn@qctimes.com.