Public health officials from Washington state and California described their efforts to prepare their communities for pandemic flu at a Capitol Hill briefing hosted by the National Association of County and City Health Officials. Noting that pandemic flu could affect between 25-35 percent of the workforce and last for at least two months, Dorothy Teeter, a public health officer in King County, Wash., met with local business leaders to discuss potential implications of school closings, human resource policies for workers isolated or quarantined and unable to work, and continuity and contingency plans. Marty Fenstersheib, a health officer with the Santa Clara County (Calif.) Department of Public Health, stressed the need to educate the public and discussed a pocket information guide the county is giving residents that explains pandemic flu and steps that they can take, such as washing hands and keeping sick children home from school, to contain a potential outbreak.

This article was published in AHA News NOW on May 22, 2006. Reprinted with permission from the American Hospital Association.