Prepare for Pandemic, Localities Are Warned

Citing lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt warned communities yesterday not to count on federal agencies to save them if a flu pandemic strikes.

"Any community that fails to prepare with the expectation that the federal government will come to the rescue will be tragically wrong," Leavitt told an audience at the Maryland Pandemic Influenza Summit in Linthicum.

The seminar brought together health care workers, researchers and the heads of local, state and federal agencies to discuss strategies for dealing with an outbreak of a new flu strain.

There hasn't been a flu pandemic since 1968, but fears of a new one are being stoked by an avian flu strain that has devastated poultry stocks and killed more than 90 people, mostly in Asia, according to the World Health Organization. There have been no U.S. cases.

The virus, H5N1, is only spread from birds to humans, but scientists fear it could mutate into a form easily transmitted between humans, igniting a pandemic.

Leavitt advised people to stockpile food and medical supplies in case an outbreak affects truck drivers and supermarkets. Without mentioning the federal government's much-criticized response to Katrina, Leavitt noted that a pandemic would be far more difficult to respond to than the hurricane that destroyed large swaths of New Orleans and Mississippi.

"At least [Katrina] was confined to that region," Leavitt said, adding that it would be logistically impossible for the federal government to respond to a widespread flu outbreak.

Leavitt promised $1.8 million in federal funds to help Maryland prepare. The state is sure to get more as the Department of Health and Human Services distributes $350 million in pandemic-preparedness funding that Congress has earmarked for states, Leavitt said.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) assured the audience that Maryland was well positioned to deal with an outbreak, with plans in place to treat large numbers of acutely ill patients. But he said more needs to be done.

"We need to be self-sufficient," he told reporters.

Brian J. Maguire, a researcher at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, said not enough has been done to help communities prepare at grass-roots levels.

"What we have to do is think about what we're going to do if a third of the community is sick and the hospitals are overwhelmed," Maguire said.