Health officials offer tips for avian flu pandemic BY JAY BODAS Staff Writer If a much-feared avian flu pandemic were to hit the U.S. three months from now, would you be prepared? The American Red Cross is helping the general public to learn just what to do if such a catastrophe were to occur through a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Red Cross held a disaster preparedness workshop on June 29 at the offices of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton to help participants learn the facts of disaster planning on a pandemic scale. "After 9/11, our chapter realized that during a disaster, the more things people can do themselves, the more our organization can take care of, and the more we can concentrate on acute cases," said Kevin Sullivan, CEO of the American Red Cross of Central New Jersey before the start of the conference. "For example, we teach people how to prepare if they could not go out for 48 hours due to a state of emergency and what to do," he said. "We provide information on what kinds of emergencies may affect you and your family, and we teach people to make a plan and be involved." More than 50 people attended the conference. "They came from all professions, all walks of life," said conference organizer Hugh Adams after the workshop's end. "The workshop is geared toward everybody, from school systems and universities to police, fire, and emergency first-responders." John Dowd, health educator risk communicator for the Middlesex County Public Health Department, was one of the conference's speakers. He said that in an influenza outbreak, a person who exhibits early signs and symptoms of the flu should not immediately rush to the emergency room. "Hospital emergency rooms are not prepared to handle all those in the beginning stages, if you are just getting sick," Dowd said. "You will have people running to the emergency room for all kinds of reasons. But if you are in the advanced stages, then definitely go." Neighbors should look out for one another, he said. "Be a good neighbor and take care of each other," Dowd said. "It used to be that you knew everybody on your street. Nowadays you are lucky if you know the person living next to you." The Red Cross advises people to create a "pandemic" supply kit - basically a beefed up version of a normal disaster kit. The kit would include items such as soap, fever-reducing medications, bleach, paper towels and tissues, a thermometer, and drinks containing electrolytes such as sports drinks, Dowd said. Kathleen Pearson, health and safety services director for the Central Jersey chapter of the Red Cross, suggested that employers more clearly outline their rights to better prepare for a pandemic situation. "Do your policies allow you to force an employee to go home when they come in sick?" Pearson asked. "Some people refuse to go home when they are sick, and there may be nothing in the policy manual to force them to do that. You should have the right to say, 'You are sick, and you must go home,' " she added. "Putting that in there may avoid you getting hit with a lawsuit." Dowd said it was difficult to predict the odds of a global influenza pandemic actually occurring in the near future, but that in many ways, the world is less prepared for one today than it was at the start of the 20th century. "In the past century, we have had three or four," he said. "It is hard to predict, as we don't know what strain will mutate to meet the criteria. And it's true that in 1918 they didn't have antivirals, and we do now, but now we are also a local society, with a plane ride away from spreading germs around the world."