Local health officials to conduct drills

Local health officials are preparing for tests next spring that will indicate whether Bourbon County is ready for a possible flu pandemic or other health emergency.

Bourbon County Public Health Nurse Alice Maffett said the Southeast Kansas Multi-County Health Department will coordinate with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment next spring to conduct a variety of drills associated with health preparedness and efficiency.

"Across the state of Kansas, all counties can participate," Maffett said. "Bourbon County is one county participating in the drills."

Some of the training drills will involve the management and mass distribution of medical supplies and medications contained in the region's Strategic National Stockpile, Maffett said.

"We will be ordering supplies, working with a computer program that we're ordering the supplies from, and coordinating with county emergency managers," she said. "We will also be timed to see how fast they (supplies) can be shipped to each county."

Maffett said she participated in similar preparedness drills two years ago at Buck Run Community Center.

In the event of a national health emergency, such as a flu pandemic, Bourbon County would receive supplies, medications and other needed items from the SNS operated by the United States Centers for Disease Control, a national repository that supplies local and state public health agencies across the country during crisis situations.

Other drills that officials will exercise include the mass dispensing of therapeutic medications. Maffett said the most recent drill of this type locally was a drive-by flu clinic that took place in October in Fort Scott, in which local residents were able to receive a flu shot quickly, from the convenience of their vehicle. In these types of exercises, areas such as public safety, security methods, and traffic control are evaluated for their effectiveness, Maffett said.

The flu clinics are also evaluated as part of the county's planning for a possible flu pandemic.

The local health office regularly communicates emergency preparedness issues to the public through periodic meetings, forums, and tabletop exercises. There is also a Pandemic Flu Task Force made up of several local county and school officials, and representatives of various other agencies, Maffett said.

"Educating the public on the event, illness or disease is a priority and we have met with various groups in the community to try to achieve this -- businesses, religious leaders, LEPC members, local hospitals, etc.," she said.

Maffett said a major portion of her job involves the investigation of communicable illnesses or diseases and reporting information she finds to KDHE through an electronic disease surveillance system.

"It's a constant part of my job," she said.

"There is a list of reportable by-state illnesses or diseases that is sent directly to KDHE -- anything that would harm our county contagiously."

When asked whether Bourbon County is prepared in the event that a communicable disease or other health threat exists in the area, Maffett said it is a process that health officials are consistently working on.

"It's an ongoing practice that we are trying to achieve all the time by working and coordinating with other agencies," she said.