How the LRF responds
Human Pandemic
This section outlines the contingency arrangements in the health economy for dealing with an influenza pandemic.
The plan deals with:
- issues that have to be decided and acted upon at local level
- co-ordinating accurate and timely multi-agency information to the public, including information on distributing anti-viral drugs to reduce the effect of the pandemic
- establishing mass vaccination centres when a vaccine is available.
What you can do:
Scientists are concerned that Avian Flu (also called "bird flu")
could become contagious and become a pandemic.
But that has NOT happened yet! At this time, Avian Flu can ONLY be spread by birds who have it; so an infected bird could give Avian Flu to another bird or to a person who handles the sick bird, but it CANNOT be spread from one person to another.
We can get vaccinations to protect us from some diseases like measles, tetanus, and seasonal flu. A new emerging strain of flu can spread so quickly that doctors and scientists do not have enough time to develop a vaccine. When that happens, it is important to stay away from people who may have the flu. And if you are sick, it is important to make sure you do not spread flu germs to someone else.
So the advice will be to GO IN, STAY IN, and TUNE IN – there will be a national 'Flu line' for you to access advice, and public information will be distributed to every household.
Anti-viral drugs will reduce the duration of the illness and are being stockpiled to treat those who become ill. The advice you will be provided with at the time will tell you how to get these.
So if there is a flu pandemic before there is a vaccine, you may need to stay home for some time so you do not get the flu from someone else. Learn about how you and your family can GET READY to shelter indoors.
Download the Local Resilience Forum Pandemic Influenza plan [Adobe PDF document, 1.39MB]
To learn more about the risk of a human pandemic flu click
here.
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