Dan Swanson
news | press

Scenarios regarding a new, deadly strain of influenza usually prepare people for the worse, but Lisa Bloss, an emergency response coordinator for Southeast District Health Department, reminded members of the Otoe County Pandemic Flu Committee at their meeting this fall that not everyone will die.

The committee has been meeting since 2005, after an outbreak of bird flu in Asia led to a public discussion about what would happen if the virus changed. Rather than being confined to birds, the virus started to spread from birds to people in 2005.

Experts conceded that if the virus adapted again so that it could be spread from one person to another, then people worldwide would get infected.

Each year there is a flu epidemic in Nebraska, but there are already some people immune to the flu strains that arrive and there are flu vaccines to bolster immunity in the population. In a pandemic scenario, the strain is so new that no one is immune. The health department projects that up to 30 percent of the workforce could be ill at one time and others would not report to work.

Keeping grocery stores open, garbage collection routes running and even ambulance service would be a struggle.

The bird flu considerations came with comparisons to the 1918 pandemic, sometimes called The Spanish Flu because of its deadliness for soldiers fighting in World War I. The pandemic is blamed for the death of 40 million people.

Meeting with Nebraska City health professionals, emergency responders, utility experts and funeral directors on Sept. 23, Bloss encouraged communities and workplaces to think through their plans to minimize exposure and suffering if another pandemic occurs.

“Our culture thinks there is always going to be a shot or a pill or a machine and we will be okay, but that may not always be the case,” she said.

While a pandemic would claim its casualties locally, she said, the care the residents give to one another will save some lives.

“Sometimes caring will mean holding a hand or giving general support,” she said. “It will be calling to see if a neighbor is well.”

“The reality for the whole city to consider is who will care for who,” said Kay Kiechel-White, chief of nursing at St. Mary’s Community Hospital.

Bloss said food pantries are always stressed, but during a pandemic it will be hard to get supplies. “It will be very hard to get people to donate if they are having trouble feeding their own family,” Bloss said.

When the hospitals are full and medicines are in short supply, people would be asked to stay home and recover. Bloss said when a vaccine for the flu is finally developed, it will be in short supply and not available for the entire population.

“These will be tough times and there will be tough decisions,” she said.