Family Planning

FROM THE CDC WEBSITE:

Overview

As you plan, it is important to think about the challenges that you might face, particularly if a pandemic is severe. It may take time to find the answers to these challenges. Below are some situations that could be caused by a severe pandemic and possible ways to address them. A checklist and fill-in sheets for family health information and emergency contact information have been prepared to help guide your planning and preparation.

Checklist, Guide, and Information Sheets

* Pandemic Flu Planning Checklist for Individuals and Families [Personal Planning Checklist] [PDF - 121KB]
Pronto pondremos a su disposición esta información en español.
* Family Emergency Health Information Sheet [PDF - 122KB]
* Emergency Contacts Form [PDF - 63KB]
* Pandemic Influenza Planning: Guide for Individuals and Families [PDF - 251KB]
The Guide contains the information found in the above three links, and related background information.



Social Disruption May Be Widespread

* Plan for the possibility that usual services may be disrupted. These could include services provided by hospitals and other health care facilities, banks, stores, restaurants, government offices, and post offices.
* Prepare backup plans in case public gatherings, such as volunteer meetings and worship services, are canceled.
* Consider how to care for people with special needs in case the services they rely on are not available.



Being Able to Work May Be Difficult or Impossible

* Find out if you can work from home.
* Ask your employer about how business will continue during a pandemic. (A Business Pandemic Influenza Planning Checklist is available at www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/businesschecklist.html.)
* Plan for the possible reduction or loss of income if you are unable to work or your place of employment is closed.
* Check with your employer or union about leave policies.



Schools May Be Closed for an Extended Period of Time

* Help schools plan for pandemic influenza. Talk to the school nurse or the health center. Talk to your teachers, administrators, and parent-teacher organizations.
* Plan home learning activities and exercises. Have materials, such as books, on hand. Also plan recreational activities that your children can do at home.
* Consider childcare needs.



Transportation Services May Be Disrupted

* Think about how you can rely less on public transportation during a pandemic. For example, store food and other essential supplies so you can make fewer trips to the store.
* Prepare backup plans for taking care of loved ones who are far away.
* Consider other ways to get to work, or, if you can, work at home.



People Will Need Advice and Help at Work and Home

* Think about what information the people in your workplace will need if you are a manager. This may include information about insurance, leave policies, working from home, possible loss of income, and when not to come to work if sick. (A Business Pandemic Influenza Planning Checklist is available at www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/businesschecklist.html.)
* Meet with your colleagues and make lists of things that you will need to know and what actions can be taken.
* Find volunteers who want to help people in need, such as elderly neighbors, single parents of small children, or people without the resources to get the medical help they will need.
* Identify other information resources in your community, such as mental health hotlines, public health hotlines, or electronic bulletin boards.
* Find support systems—people who are thinking about the same issues you are thinking about. Share ideas.



Be Prepared

Stock a supply of water and food. During a pandemic you may not be able to get to a store. Even if you can get to a store, it may be out of supplies. Public waterworks services may also be interrupted. Stocking supplies can be useful in other types of emergencies, such as power outages and disasters. Store foods that:

* are nonperishable (will keep for a long time) and don’t require refrigeration
* are easy to prepare in case you are unable to cook
* require little or no water, so you can conserve water for drinking

See a checklist of items to have on hand for an extended stay at home.

Of cats and dogs

Current news from the CDC website on pets:

Avian Influenza Infection in Animals

What animals can be infected with avian influenza A (H5N1) viruses?
In addition to humans and birds, we know that pigs, tigers, leopards, ferrets, and household cats can be infected with avian influenza A (H5N1) viruses. In addition, in early March 2006, Germany reported H5N1 infection in a stone marten (a weasel-like mammal). It's possible that other mammals may be susceptible to avian influenza A (H5N1) infection as well.

Can cats be infected with avian influenza viruses?
While household cats are not usually susceptible to influenza type-A infection, studies have shown that they can be infected with avian influenza A (H5N1) viruses and can spread the virus to other cats.

How do cats become infected with avian influenza A (H5N1) viruses?
All of the cases of influenza A (H5N1) infection in household cats reported to date have been associated with H5N1 outbreaks among domestic poultry or wild birds and are thought to have occurred by the cat eating raw infected meat.

How commonly have cats been infected with avian influenza A (H5N1) viruses?
During the avian influenza A (H5N1) outbreak that occurred from 2003 to 2004 in Asia, there were only several unofficial reports of fatal infections in domestic cats. Studies carried out in the Netherlands and published in 2004 showed that housecats could be infected with avian influenza A (H5N1) and could spread the virus to other housecats. In these experiments, the cats became sick after direct inoculation of virus isolated from a fatal human case, and following the feeding of infected raw chicken. In February 2006, Germany reported that a domestic cat had died from influenza A (H5N1) infection. That cat lived in the northern island of Ruegen, where more than 100 wild birds are believed to have died of the disease. The cat probably got sick by eating an infected bird.

What about infection in large cats, like tigers?
Large cats kept in captivity have been diagnosed with avian influenza as well. In December 2003, two tigers and two leopards that were fed fresh chicken carcasses from a local slaughterhouse died at a zoo in Thailand. An investigation identified avian influenza A (H5N1) in tissue samples. In February and March 2004, the virus was detected in a clouded leopard and white tiger, respectively, both of which died in a zoo near Bangkok . In October 2004, 147 of 441 captive tigers in a zoo in Thailand died or were euthanatized as a result of infection after being fed fresh chicken carcasses. The cats are thought to have gotten sick from eating infected raw meat. Results of a subsequent investigation suggested that at least some tiger-to-tiger transmission occurred in that facility.

Can cats spread H5N1 to people?
There is no evidence to date that cats can spread H5N1 to humans. No cases of avian influenza in humans have been linked to exposure to sick cats, and no outbreaks among populations of cats have been reported. All of the influenza A (H5N1) infections in cats reported to date appear to have been associated with outbreaks in domestic or wild birds and acquired through ingestion of raw infected meat.

What is the current risk that a cat will become infected with influenza A (H5N1) virus in the United States?
Influenza A (H5N1) virus has not been identified in the United States, so at this time there is no known risk of a U.S. cat becoming infected with this virus.

If avian influenza A (H5N1) is identified in the United States, how can I protect my cat?
As long as there is no H5N1 influenza in the United States, at this time there is no risk of a U.S. cat becoming infected with this disease. In Europe, however, where H5N1 has been reported in wild birds, poultry, several cats, and a stone marten (a member of the weasel family), the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control has issued preliminary recommendations for cat owners living in H5N1-affected areas. These include keeping household cats indoors to prevent exposure to potentially infected birds.

Where can I find out more information about avian influenza infection in cats?
For more information about avian influenza in cats, visit www.fao.org/ag/againfo/subjects/en/health/diseases-cards/avian_cats.html .

NOTE: Answers to other questions can be found in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the World Health Organization (WHO) website.

Page last modified April 7, 2006
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AVIAN FLU NEWS

North America gears up for avian flu
Scientists say migrating birds may bring virus to U.S. mainland by fall

BY SEAN MUSSENDEN AND A.J. HOSTETLER
MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE / TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Apr 2, 2006

The bird-flu virus could kill thousands of birds and devastate the $29 billion U.S. poultry industry. They're sifting through goose poop in the wilds of Alaska.

They're sending out undercover birds as spies.

They're tracking waterfowl with satellites, drawing chicken blood on Virginia farms and swabbing poultry beaks in Alabama.

Across the country, scientists and public-health officials are on a high-stakes hunt for a deadly Asian strain of bird flu.

It's a serious mission with an uncertain outcome. The virus might never show up, or it could kill thousands of birds and devastate the $29 billion U.S. poultry industry.

Or, in a nightmare scenario, it could combine with a strain of human flu, creating a pandemic super-virus that spreads easily from person to person and kills millions.

To prepare for that possibility, the U.S. government is spending billions to stockpile vaccines and anti-viral drugs and millions more to monitor the spread of the virus.

"We may be the first generation in human history with the ability to do something in advance of this," Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt said.

The bird-flu strain, known as highly pathogenic H5N1, has spread across Asia, Europe and Africa, killing thousands of wild birds and poultry. In rare cases, the bird virus has jumped to humans, killing about half it infects -- 108 people worldwide since 2003.

Scientists believe the disease will reach North America soon. Identifying it quickly will be crucial to containing it.

Government agencies are focusing on wild birds that cross continents as they migrate thousands of miles. Alaska is ground zero: In the spring and summer, the vast northern wilderness provides an ideal nesting ground for millions of wild birds from Asia and North America.

"Alaska is kind of the crossroads, the Grand Central Station for migratory birds," said Paul Slota, an avian-flu specialist with the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center.

Scientists worry that birds migrating through Asia will carry the virus to Alaska this month and intermingle with North American-based species. When the North American birds move south, they could bring the virus into the U.S. mainland by the fall.

. . .

Last month, officials from Slota's agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture rolled out a vastly expanded monitoring plan for wild birds, primarily waterfowl.

Last year, government scientists tested an estimated 2,000 samples from wild birds, USDA said. This year, they will test closer to 150,000.

They will take fecal samples from live birds, test birds killed by hunters or those found dead in the wild, sample water where wild birds congregate and test spy birds -- known as "sentinel ducks" -- sent to mix with wild birds.

If the disease is found, scientists would alert public-health officials and the poultry industry along the migration route, but the wild flock likely would not be destroyed.

If the virus shows up in a U.S. poultry flock or a human, it would pose a much greater risk to public health. Worldwide, there have been no confirmed cases of a human contracting avian flu from interacting with wild birds.

Waterfowl and shorebirds, the primary reservoirs of viruses such as H5N1, can carry the disease without dying. When the virus spreads to land-based birds -- especially chickens -- through feces, infected water or respiratory secretions, it frequently becomes much more lethal, said Bill Pierson, an avian infectious-disease specialist at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech.

Scientists worry that the avian flu will infect a person already sick with the seasonal human flu. If this Superman bird virus combines forces with a Wonder Woman strain of human flu, the alliance could produce what Pierson calls a "monster virus" able to spread rapidly among a susceptible human population, producing a pandemic.

That's one reason poultry farmers in the Southeast, the epicenter of the American poultry industry, take biosecurity seriously. In a stark contrast to Asia -- where chickens roam freely in villages, facilitating the spread of the virus to humans -- most poultry here is produced in controlled environments.

. . .

At his family farm near Harrisonburg, James Rodes raises chickens, 16,000 at a time, for Perdue in an enclosed chicken house designed to keep his birds in and wild birds out.

The handful of people authorized to enter his chicken house must wear protective suits, as well as boot and head coverings at all times.

"With the thousands of dollars I've got borrowed to run this farm, I can't help but take the threat of avian flu very seriously," Rodes said. "But with the biosecurity measures we've got in place, I feel pretty comfortable."

When the birds are 22 weeks old, they are moved to another farm to lay eggs. Before the move, a Perdue technician will take blood samples from several chickens to check for avian flu and other diseases.

In some states, such as Alabama, government agriculture inspectors regularly take samples from commercial poultry flocks.

On a recent morning on a poultry farm near Clanton, Ala., state agriculture department official Ray Hilburn held a feisty rooster while an assistant swabbed the inside of its throat.

"We used to, on average, test between 10,000 and 20,000 samples per year. Now our testing this year will be above 200,000," Hilburn said.

If H5N1 or other highly pathogenic strains of avian flu are found in domestic poultry, government regulations require the flock's immediate destruction.

In Texas last year, fast work by state and federal officials prevented a major outbreak of a similar bird-flu virus. The owner of an infected flock regularly sent dead birds to a state lab for testing. One day, a test turned up high-path avian flu. The flock was quickly destroyed. Flocks at two live-bird markets where the virus had moved were killed, and it spread no further.

"The big thing with avian influenza is how quickly you respond to it. The response to the Texas case worked," said Fidelis Hegngi, a senior staff veterinarian specializing in poultry with National Center for Animal Health Programs, a branch of the USDA.

. . .

As the global threat of avian flu increases, the USDA is working with states to increase surveillance of high-risk populations -- so called "backyard" flocks that are not raised in sheltered houses.

The H5N1 virus was first detected in 1997 in the bird markets and homes of Hong Kong. Six people and millions of chickens died before the outbreak was extinguished. The current outbreak, which began in 2003 in Asia and has accelerated this year through the Middle East, Europe and Africa, has killed 108 people, according to the World Health Organization.

With the virus moving into more countries each week, there is a growing consensus among scientists that the disease will reach the United States, most likely this year as birds return from their summer migrations.

Thomas Toth, an avian virologist at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, said he is 100 percent certain that the virus will reach North America. For him, there's just one question.

"It is not whether," Toth said, "rather it is when."
Contact Sean Mussenden at smussenden@mediageneral.com or (202) 662-7668.

Contact A.J. Hostetler at ahostetler@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6355.
Phillip Ohnemus of WIAT-TV in Birmingham, Ala., contributed to this report.