Medical Reserve Corps Plans Emergency Medication Exercise at Lake County Fair

Do you know what to do in case of a county-wide public health emergency in which medication is distributed quickly to the general population? You can learn very easily this year as members of the Lake County Health Department's Medical Reserve Corps conduct demonstrations in the expo building at the Lake County Fair, located north of Peterson and Midlothian roads, in Grayslake.

From 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, July 25; Friday, July 27; and Saturday, July 28, fairgoers may participate in a step-by-step dispensing operation. The dispensing operations will help test whether the county's system is capable of distributing medication to the Lake County population within 48 hours, which is the time limit recommended by the Centers for Disease Control for mass emergency medication distribution. In such a scenario, many of the county's polling places would be used as dispensing sites.

The Medical Reserve Corps was founded in 2003 and has hundreds of active volunteers, including medical and non-medical personnel. The corps is also continually recruiting qualified volunteers who want to keep their communities healthy and safe. For more information about the Medical Reserve Corps, see, http://www.lakecountyil.gov/Health/want/Pages/Volunteer.aspx. If you are interested in volunteering, call (847) 377-8358.

The Lake County Citizen Corps is providing booth space at the county fair for the Medical Reserve Corps demonstration as well as weather monitoring demonstrations by the Lake County Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service and demonstrations by local Community Emergency Response Teams regarding extinguishers, search and rescue, and first aid. All groups will be distributing emergency preparedness literature to better prepare residents.