The State of Maryland’s plan to respond to an influenza pandemic will be tested during a full-scale, three-day exercise, June 17 – 19.  Locally, organizations with a major role in the exercise are the Cecil County Department of Health, Cecil County Emergency Management, Union Hospital, and Cecil County Public Schools.

The emergency scenario is designed to test the expertise and capability of the health care system and emergency services within Cecil County to adequately identify and respond to unusual work and patient loads during a pandemic influenza outbreak.

Details of the exercise are known only to a select few state employees and hospital personnel. All other responders to the mock emergency will be operating as if the situation was unfolding as a real event.

“This exercise is an important part of our preparations for a potential disease outbreak or other hazard,” said Kathryn McKinney, hospital spokesperson. “A pandemic influenza would require a rapid and well coordinated response among many state and local agencies and other partners. Our goal is to test and strengthen the county’s pandemic influenza plans.”

During the three days, hospital staff, government officials and emergency responders will play out their roles in the emergency posed by the simulated event.

Key elements of Cecil County’s pandemic influenza response planning that will be tested during the three-day exercise include:
• Testing the response of Union Hospital, Cecil County Health Department, and Cecil County Emergency Medical Services to medical surge related to a pandemic influenza outbreak.
• To test interoperable and redundant communication between all participating agencies.
• The activation of a local Joint Information Center to distribute information to the community.

A pandemic is a global disease outbreak. A flu pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus emerges for which people have little or no immunity and for which there is no vaccine. The disease spreads easily person-to-person, causes serious illness, and can sweep across the country and around the world in a very short time. Influenza pandemics are not common. In the past century, the 1918 Spanish flu caused an estimated 50 million deaths. The 1958 Asian flu killed more than 32 million, and the 1968 Hong Kong Flu about 1 million. No one can say when a flu pandemic might strike, but most scientists agree that, given the history, a pandemic is likely.