Pandemic planning in Christchurch today
Friday 19 August 2005
Assistant Professor Rice’s lecture has given us a sobering insight into the events of the 1918 influenza pandemic.
This could not have been more timely.
In the past year we have all grown increasingly, and uncomfortably, familiar with a new threat – H5N1... the highly pathogenic Avian Influenza, or Bird Flu.
We know that currently the virus is not easily transmitted from human to human. But experts believe there’s a high risk that it will become a threat to human populations. If this happens we could well be facing a serious worldwide pandemic ... ‘Black November’ revisited, perhaps.
We’ve heard about the kinds of effects likely to be seen here in such an event – especially the high levels of absenteeism, and disruptions to many of the services and supplies we take for granted.
Clearly, it will not be business as usual.
As Mayor, I’ve made it my business to reassure myself that everything that can be done to prepare for a future pandemic, is being done.
So far, I believe we’re well on track. And we’re being well served by the many agencies who are cooperating to ensure that plans are in place and ready to be rolled out.
At a national level, the Government is reviewing and updating existing pandemic plans. An inter-agency pandemic group has been established, and a whole-of-government approach is being coordinated through the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
The Ministry of Health will work with other government bodies to minimise social and economic disruption to the greatest extent possible.
A three-phase approach will include border management activities to keep the virus out as long as possible, controlling and eliminating outbreak clusters, and managing the impacts on local populations.
Efforts will focus on strategies to prevent or slow the spread of the outbreak until the general population is protected by vaccination. Resources will also go into ensuring that critical health services can continue to function.
Here in Canterbury, a coordinated planning approach has been under way for some time.
A key initiative has been the establishment of the Canterbury Pandemic Influenza Working Party, which brings together all the agencies likely to be involved in managing the impacts of an outbreak – clarifying roles and getting lines of communication sorted.
The group is also developing a draft outline Pandemic Influenza Plan, including a Public Information Plan, which will be presented to a Joint Committee next week.
The Canterbury District Health Board is well advanced in planning for managing the health impacts of a possible pandemic.
Strategies are based around keeping infectious patients away from normal healthcare pathways, and separated from people who are not infectious. The intention is to try to maintain the normal healthcare system for as long as possible, by providing an alternative system for handling flu patients.
This process will have two key components:
The first is Community-based Assessment Centres, which will assess patients to determine their needs and provide initial advice and treatment.
Community Treatment Centres, the second line of care, would provide accommodation and basic clinical care for patients who would normally require hospitalisation but can’t be provided with a hospital bed, or who are unable to be sent home.
In Christchurch, it’s likely that a range of Community Treatment Centres would be established. These could include facilities in hotels and motels for low-risk patients who can’t be treated at home, through to medium-intensity facilities where direct medical care is more easily set up, such as gyms, halls, event centres etc.
There’s a lot of talk at the moment about Tamiflu... who’s got a stash tucked away at home and who hasn’t. Tamiflu isn’t a cure for bird flu. At best, it will reduce the symptoms and the number of days of illness for people showing early symptoms of bird flu.
The government has 855,000 stockpiled Tamiflu courses which will be distributed by the Ministry of Health in the event of a pandemic – and they’ll decide how it will be used when the exact nature of the pandemic is understood.
It’s also important to remember that so far there’s no vaccination against bird flu – so our best defence is careful planning.
At some point, probably well after the first cases of human-to-human bird flu, a vaccine could be developed to protect those who haven’t already been infected.
If and when this happens, the Ministry of Health has an agreement in place for a guaranteed supply of vaccine.
The City Council, of course, is working with other agencies on joint plans, but is also planning how it will best maintain services in the event of a pandemic.
Priorities for the Council include planning for large numbers of staff becoming ill, or staying home to care for sick family and friends.
We are also likely to face potential disruptions with staff and contractors being unable to deliver essential services such as maintenance of water and waste networks, cemetery burials, and street maintenance.
A key issue will be to identify what non-essential services would cease, and in what order, so that we can maintain delivery of other, higher priority services.
We need to be serious about avian flu. It’s not here yet, and it may never come, but we need to plan as if bird flu will arrive tomorrow.
For the Council, this means being able to keep the city running as smoothly as possible, and for all of us, it means being ready at home, at work or school – or university – to look after ourselves and each other.
We’re making a good start, and through good planning, by working together, and by learning from the 1918 pandemic, we’ll be as ready as we can be to deal with a future pandemic here in Christchurch.
Thank you |
