The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

April 28, 2009

Gearing up for outbreak

Local health institutions have planned ahead

By Brian Ojanpa

Although there have been no confirmed cases as yet of swine flu in Minnesota, area health agencies are locked and loaded to deal with any outbreak.

“It’s something we’ve been preparing for for years, so I feel we’re ready to respond,” said Nita Aasen, Nicollet County Public Health director.

At the hospital in St. James, a city with a large Latino population, close attention is being paid to patients who have recently been in flu-beset Mexico.

And the Twin Cities-based Allina hospital and clinic chain, of which New Ulm Medical Center is a member, has issued a directive to affiliates:

Anyone who appears in an emergency room with symptoms of upper-respiratory illness will be asked to wear a face mask and be separated from others by at least 6 feet.

Those people also will be asked if they’ve traveled recently, and throats and noses will be swabbed for testing.

Mayo Health System hospitals in Mankato and elsewhere are doing much the same.

The state of Minnesota’s preparations for a flu pandemic include a stockpile of 300,000 doses of anti-viral and heightened surveillance for this strain of swine flu — officially designated as H1N1 influenza.

If hospitals were to become overwhelmed, makeshift hospitals in schools and elsewhere would be implemented.

“This is a novel virus, never before seen in the U.S. or worldwide,” Aasen said. “It contains viruses from humans, pigs, and birds. It’s a mixed bag.”

A meeting in St. Peter Tuesday involving police, school officials and representatives of Gustavus Adolphus College focused on reviewing what each entity is doing to communicate with students, staff and parents.

A similar meeting Tuesday involved Waseca County officials.

“We’ve upped our public education efforts just to make sure everyone is on the same page,” said Waseca County Public Health Director Cheri Lewer.

She said state planning for a possible pandemic has been ongoing the past seven years, and cooperation between communities is key.

“By working regionally, we can pull resources from each other,” Lewer said.

At St. James Medical Center, Communications Manager Anita Schlabach said flu information is available in Spanish and staff are working to put it on the hospital’s Web site as well.

The hospital also has a “language line” available to Latino residents, whereby their phone inquiries in Spanish are translated for their doctors, whose comments are translated back in Spanish.

Schlabach said there have been some Latino people coming in for flu tests because they’ve either visited Mexico recently or come in contact with someone who has.

“That’s the source of their concern,” she said.

For now, Aasen said, all anyone can do is wait.

“The situation is very fluid at this time, and we’ll know more in a couple of weeks how it all plays out.”

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