Maryland has had a plan for dealing with a widespread outbreak of disease since 1999, but it’s not specific enough and must be updated to deal with the growing threat of avian flu, both its authors and critics say.
            “I feel confident that Maryland is preparing themselves,” said Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene epidemiologist Dr. David Blythe, one of the co-authors of the plan.
            Yet he and other DHMH officials say the response plan will be updated after the Bush administration releases its strategy, expected later this month.

            Originally detected in migratory waterfowl in Southeast Asia, the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus has spread across Russia and most recently into parts of Europe. Researchers suspect it could reach pandemic proportions if it manages to become transmittable from human to human.

            Medical officials also say another pandemic is imminent, whether caused by this particular virus or a similar one. The last three major pandemics that occurred — the Spanish flu in 1918, the Asian flu in 1957 and the Hong Kong flu in 1968 — were caused by an avian flu virus.

            A “medium-level” U.S. pandemic would affect 15 to 35 percent of the population, cause 89,000 to 207,000 deaths and 314,000 and 734,000 hospitalizations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. If the virus crosses into the United States, Maryland might be in particular danger because of its large poultry industry.

            Maryland’s current plan is in its fifth version and was last updated in April 2002.
            The plan, developed by about 150 individuals representing 90 state, local, private and volunteer organizations, outlines six phases of the pandemic and how local health departments, three state agencies — DHMH, Maryland Emergency Management Agency and Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems — and the federal government should act.

            The plan sees the pandemic in six phases: identification of the virus in a small number of people; identification of multiple cases in the same area; high mortality rates in multiple areas; virus and deaths in multiple countries; a second wave of multiple infections; and an end phase, in which the virus is under control.

            An additional six “essential components” are discussed in the plan: command and control procedures, surveillance, vaccine delivery, anti-viral medication delivery, emergency medical services and communications.

     &nbs