OFFICIALS PREP FOR AVIAN FLU OUTBREAK.Byline: Ivy Dai Staff Writer Los Angeles County health officials say they are preparing for a local outbreak of avian flu that has killed 37 people in Thailand and Vietnam. ``It's likely we'll have another major flu pandemic pandemic /pan·dem·ic/ (pan-dem´ik) 1. a widespread epidemic of a disease. 2. widely epidemic. pan·dem·ic adj. Epidemic over a wide geographic area. n. in the future,'' said Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, director of Communicable Disease communicable disease n. A disease that is transmitted through direct contact with an infected individual or indirectly through a vector. Also called contagious disease. Control and Prevention for the Department of Health Services Department of Health Services may refer to:
``We're concerned about the possibility that the avian flu could take on the characteristics of a human influenza that easily spreads from person to person.'' County health officials, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), agency of the U.S. Public Health Service since 1973, with headquarters in Atlanta; it was established in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center. and other agencies are monitoring the pattern of an avian flu that has killed dozens of people in Asia. Kaiser Permanente developed a contingency plan in November to deal with a possible flu pandemic, and has an infection control program that monitors patients' symptoms. Local and state officials are preparing plans for mass vaccinations, and will educate the public on prevention, much as they've done with the current flu vaccine shortage, Kim-Farley said. The National Institutes of Health is developing an avian flu vaccine now undergoing clinical trials, CDC See Control Data, century date change and Back Orifice. CDC - Control Data Corporation spokesman Dave Daigle said. ``We know that the virus is in the environment now,'' Daigle said. ``We believe the virus is here to stay. Even if it happens in Asia, it could spread to the United States in a matter of hours.'' An avian flu could mutate mu·tate intr. & tr.v. mu·tat·ed, mu·tat·ing, mu·tates To undergo or cause to undergo mutation. [Latin m and kill up to 7 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. The flu would spread globally in about a year, Kim-Farley said. Ivy Dai, (626) 962-8811, Ext. 2730 ivy.dai(at)sgvn.com |
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