Page 10 - WCMS4Q21

A WCMS Task Force Responds to A/H1N1, Ebola, and COVID-19 Richard E. Burney, MD
Twelve years ago, an outbreak of a new influenza virus, A/H1N1, which had affected thousands of persons in Mexico, raised worldwide alarm when this “swine flu” variant, was identified in a number of states and countries. In June 2009, when it had been isolated in 70 countries, the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic. In the face of such a declaration, what role can the local medical society play?
There are many hands in the health care system: in
a pandemic, one hand needs to know what the others are thinking and doing so all can work together. In pursuit of this goal, the Washtenaw County Medical Society in early 2009 assembled a “pandemic group” of leaders and experts from among physicians, hospitals, EMS, Police, the University, Public Health. During the 2009 pandemic this group put out several combined messages with logos from the different hospitals and the county health department.
This was a brand-new role for the medical society. One reason we don’t remember the 2009 epidemic because the medical and public health response was so well-managed.
Ebola
In 2014, the same group of hospital and community leaders, reconvened to form an Ebola Preparedness group to plan a response to the West African Ebola outbreak should it spread to the U.S. In a communication at that time, WCMS stated:
The group discussed the personal protective equipment (PPE) that will be used by healthcare workers caring for possible patients with the Ebola virus, including rigorous and repeated training of donning and doffing of PPE, the newly introduced CDC guidelines stressing no skin exposure when PPE is worn, and the use of a trained observer to monitor
10 Washtenaw County Medical Society BULLETIN WINTER 2021