Rhode Island news | projo.com | 9 to 5: The news pulse of Rhode Island and SE Mass.

« Hatch testimony centers on check for charity venture | Today | Conn. high court upholds Kennedy kin's murder conviction »

January 13, 2006

Updated: U.S. health secretary: Everyone needs a plan for a flu pandemic / Photo

Journal photo / Kris Craig U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael O. Leavitt speaks to the crowd in Warwick today.

WARWICK -- If a flu pandemic strikes, local communities will be on their own, the U.S. secretary of health and human services said during a visit to Rhode Island today.

"Every community will have to rely on its own resources,'' Michael O. Leavitt told an overflow crowd of hundreds of Rhode Island officials at the Crowne Plaza hotel.

Unlike with natural disasters, a flu pandemic will affect the entire nation, and the federal government will not be able to marshal help from other parts of the country, he said.

"Every state needs a plan. Every tribe needs a plan. Every school, every business, every church, every family needs a plan,'' Leavitt said.

Leavitt's visit to Rhode Island was one of the first in a tour he plans to make of every state, to push for action on pandemic-flu planning.

-- Journal medical writer Felice J. Freyer

All states are preparing action plans in the event of a pandemic.

Scientists have been worried about the possibility of a flu pandemic because in Asia, and most recently in Turkey, a lethal strain of bird flu has passed from birds to people, killing about half the people who have become infected.

Experts worry that this flu virus may eventually mutate into one that is easily transmissable from person to person, sparking a worldwide pandemic of a virus against which people have no immunity.

-- Journal medical writer Felice J. Freyer

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 2:32 PM | Permalink

Comments

Again, this government abusing its American Citizens with their every man on his own. They show no mercy, and apparently have no respect for the American People.

Posted by: A. Douglas at January 13, 2006 03:32 PM