After a nightmare of weather disasters state-wide the past year, the Center for Public Health Preparedness stepped back and found the disasters had furnished a tremendous learning experience for everyone involved.
The center, which is part of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, worked with local and state officials as they coped with a blizzard in western Kansas, a tornado in Greensburg, rampant flooding in southeast Kansas and ice storms across the northeast quadrant.
What they learned, they integrated into their existing all-hazards program, Center Director Mindee Reece told those who attended a health forum Thursday evening at the Lyon County Courthouse.
The forum was hosted by Flint Hills Community Health Center Director Lougene Marsh. It included updates from State Sen. Jim Barnett and State Rep. Don Hill, who outlined progress made in the Kansas Legislature, and matters that remain to be faced when the omnibus session begins on Wednesday.
Reece said that much that was learned during the weather disasters could be applied if health officials were mobilized to fight a pandemic outbreak of influenza.
In Greensburg, for example, the presence of asbestos prompted workers to take precautions against airborne dangers.
“The whole airborne protection process has been very important to us,” Reece said. “It was easy to sort of tweak them” to combat other types of airborne dangers.
Health officials continue to watch and to prepare for an influenza pandemic, and have planned ahead not only for general health issues, but for keeping business and industries, including the state, operating under those circumstances. For the safety and well-being of the citizens, Reece said, it is vital to cross-train workers so that they are able to do jobs other than their own; a pandemic could effectively prevent entire teams of employees from coming to work.
She said the state is partnering with business and industry to determine what their plans are.
“It’s not a one-shot process for how we’re going to prepare and respond,” Reece said.
“The good news is those preventions will pay off … in Kansas and across the country, we’re really preparing for anything.”
The most effective ways to prevent spread of disease continue to be the basics:
F Stay home when you’re sick
F Wash your hands
F Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze
F Avoid crowds during outbreaks
F Get a flu vaccination
F And, most important, stay home when you’re sick
The latter recommendation, Reece said, is one that health-care workers in particular struggle with.
“We’re trying to change people’s mindset, that coming to work is a great thing, but when you’re sick, you need to stay home,” she said.
The state has a good stockpile of Tamiflu and Relenza, antivirals for influenza. Although Avian, or Bird, Flu has been a concern in other areas of the world, it rarely has appeared to pass from bird to human, or from human to human. It would need to mutate to accomplish the latter, and there would be approximately a 6-month time period to create a vaccine. Authorities are watching a relatively new strain of Avian flu, H5N1.
“As far as vaccine, we have none, because there is none,” Reece said.
She said that the Japanese are working on developing a vaccine; however, the virus would have to mutate to be passed from human to human.
“To me, that’s not a very wise use of resources,” she said.
The most useful interventions into an influenza outbreak are likely to be personal protective equipment that has been purchased for a flu pandemic.
“But, if I have a flood, tornado, use those,” she said. “And so we’re trying to be as all-hazards as possible.”
The legislators told the audience that they had been impressed with the 21-point recommendations of the Kansas Health Policy Authority, but that implementing all of them would take time.
The Authority grouped its suggestions into categories: personal responsibility; medical “homes;” prevention and promoting healthy behaviors in families/communities, schools, and the workplace; and providing and protecting affordable health insurance.
“We’ve made some progress — maybe two scissor steps forward and a baby step back, I’m not sure,” Hill said. “I guess another piece of good news is that there’s nothing that failed. There just wasn’t much accomplished.”
Hill said that the upcoming omnibus session would hold much to consider.
“Of the six years I’ve been in the legislature, this is totally unique,” he said. “(It) was intended always to be reserved for veto items and omnibus budget, and maybe a few loose ends.”
This year, he said, when legislators return, the House faces 70 pieces of legislation, with about 23 of them ready to be voted on.
“They say if you’ve got a terminal illness you should probably go to the Capitol because nothing’s ever dead there,” Hill said.
With school finance resolved to the court’s specifications and a comprehensive highway program to be renewed, Barnett said he expects health care to be the next issue to rise to attention.
Barnett said that the state has the potential to provide affordable health care — including mental and dental health — to all of its citizens. However, larger issues like the economy, the job market and careless spending hamper efforts.
“(Workers) can’t find jobs that provide even a living wage, let alone benefits,” he said.
Eligibility for some programs is determined by whether the applicant’s income level is 37 percent of poverty level; Barnett said that equated to $3,800.
“I don’t know how in the world you’d live on that much,” he said.
Without help from the state, people who do not qualify for aid or for health insurance find an alternative.
“They go to the emergency room and we all pay for that,” Barnett said. “We waste enough money in America to take care of all the uninsured.”
Immigration also must be dealt with, he said, because it “impacts health care, education and everything else.”
Because spending exceeded income by about $500 million last year, this year’s ending balance is expected to be very low, Barnett said.
“We don’t run our house that way, we don’t run our businesses that way, but that’s exactly what’s happening.”
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