In the event of a national or worldwide influenza epidemic, area hospitals expect to be overwhelmed by patients and plan to lean on volunteer Medical Reserve Corps in each town.
On Saturday, seven area towns participated in the region's first drill to gauge the effectiveness of those corps during the Full Scale Emergency Preparedness Drill at Caritas Norwood Hospital.
The towns of Canton, Dedham, Milton, Needham, Norwood, Wellesley and Westwood, Caritas Norwood Hospital and the Center for Public Health Preparedness at Harvard School of Public Health participated in the drill.
The Medical Reserve Corps, said Linda Shea, director of the Westwood Department of Public Health, is comprised of medical and nonmedical volunteers from each town. In Westwood, 20 of the corps' 100 members participated. She said the entire event involved about 174 volunteers.
Sigalle Reiss, director of the Norwood Health Department, said 34 of her town's 124-person group participated in the drill. Reiss said she was impressed with the way Norwood members cooperated in the effort.
Reiss said about two-thirds of the volunteers for the drill acted as patients and the rest were care givers.
Shea and Reiss said they were heartened by the attendance and performance of the volunteers, since in the event of a pandemic, scarce resources and an overwhelming number of patients will prove challenging. The directors said their teams learned important lessons that will improve their response should there be a real pandemic.
Federal and state health officials urge preparedness for a flu pandemic, Reiss said, since pandemics have, in the past, occurred in cycles. The Centers for Disease Control Web site www.cdc.gov, marks three pandemics during the last century:
UThe 1918 influenza pandemic caused at least 675,000 deaths in the U.S. and up to 50 million deaths worldwide.
UThe 1957 influenza pandemic caused at least 70,000 U.S. deaths and 1 million to 2 million deaths worldwide.
UThe 1968 influenza pandemic caused about 34,000 deaths in the United States and 700,000 deaths worldwide.
The CDC Web site says an influenza pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus appears to which the general public has little or no immunity, causing serious illness worldwide.
"You never know what year it will come or when it will come," Reiss said.
Part of the plan included setting up an influenza special care unit - a site set up outside the hospital to care for the anticipated number of patients a pandemic would create.
"It was an eye-opening experience," said Shea, "In the event of a pandemic, it's going to be really difficult."
Each town's Medical Reserve Corps was given a specific task to handle during the drill, said Shea. For Westwood, that task was staffing, and one problem they will need to address became clear - finding clergy to offer last rites.
"That was something that I didn't think of, that obviously, you need," Shea said.
Norwood was responsible for supplies, Reiss said. In the event of a real pandemic, she said, "We would not be able to keep up with supplies needed."
She said influenza patients will need cots that will elevate their upper bodies, not flat cots the team had available during the drill. Reiss said a patient with a respiratory illness should not be lying flat.
Supplies, in theory, will be provided by the state Department of Public Health. "Without the funding, it's not going to happen," she said. Though responding to a pandemic seems daunting, the drill has helped area health officials plan better for the possibility.
"It's a challenge, but this brings us one step closer," Reiss said.
