Officials urge preparations for flu pandemic

North Idaho health officials sent a clear message Wednesday on the threat of an influenza pandemic and how to prepare: It’s not a question of if, but when it hits.

If the pandemic is anything like the Spanish influenza epidemic in 1918, 63,000 people could become infected in North Idaho alone, Panhandle Health District representatives said during a two-hour summit Wednesday morning.

Deaths in the five-county region could top 1,300. Hospitals would be drastically short of beds for the estimated 6,900 people who would need them.

Vaccines won’t immediately be available, and when they are, there won’t be enough.

Caskets and body bags would be in severe shortage, and government officials could be scrambling to find a place to store the influx of corpses.

Despite that grim scenario, officials say don’t panic – just be prepared.

“I don’t want to sound the alarm, but we also think it would be irresponsible not to prepare,” said Jeanne Bock, director of the Panhandle Health District.

More than 50 Kootenai County business leaders and public officials attended the meeting to hear about the risk posed by a pandemic flu and what can be done to prepare.

The advice was blunt: Don’t rely on the government for help. Businesses need to have a plan in place for a pandemic, and citizens need to make sure they have enough supplies to get through at least 10 days without outside assistance.

Similar meetings have been held in communities across the country. Congress authorized a $350 million emergency appropriation in December to help prepare for a pandemic. Washington got about $2 million to assist in preparations around the state, while Idaho received about $830,000.

But don’t expect the government to help much once the pandemic hits, said Jeff Lee, an epidemiologist with the health district.

“The federal government plan is that you have a plan,” Lee said. “The national hospital association has said, ‘We don’t know how we’re going to prepare for this.’ “

Officials stressed that a flu pandemic would be unlike any other disaster because it affects everyone, regardless of age and health.

“The whole world is going to be dealing with it,” said Sandy Von Behren, director of the Kootenai County Office of Emergency Management.

Businessmen, government employees, children, teachers – no one is safe because the disease would be something the world’s never seen, Lee said. It could take months to develop proper vaccines. Estimates for the number of infections and deaths could be inflated, or could be gross underestimates, Lee said.

“There’s no crystal ball,” he said.

The key is to prepare now instead of waiting for the pandemic to hit and news reports to cause widespread panic, Lee said.

People need to be ready to be confined to their homes for at least 10 days should a pandemic strike, Lee said. Schools are likely to be one of the first things shut down, Lee said, so employers need to prepare for not only sick workers but employees who can’t go to work because they’re home with their children, sick or not.

These are issues that the Spokane branch of Food Services of America has already been thinking about, said its president, Mike George.

“We all have to realize you’re on your own,” George said.

He spoke about how his company is preparing for the pandemic, emphasizing the need to have a plan in place to ensure a business’s survival.

He has already thought about who would take his place should he die. He has considered security measures the company may have to take to ensure that food deliveries can still happen. Should the government confiscate the company’s refrigerated delivery trucks to use as morgues, George said he’s considered how the company might deal with the loss of such expensive and vital equipment.

“We’re just thinking up dark ideas,” George said. “We don’t have answers to all these issues, but we’re at least thinking about them.”