If bird flu hits the Tri-Cities, Geneva will be ready for it
The bird flu may never become a pandemic.
But if it does, Geneva city officials are prepared with a new plan for continuing to provide city services during the crisis.
The plan, presented to the city council last week and slated to become part of the city's emergency operations plan, outlines measures city employees may take to reduce spreading the flu.
Two words: social distancing.
Social distancing means many things. For example, the policy recommends conducting business by e-mail, phone or videoconference, rather than meeting face to face. If employees must meet, they are to sit or stand at least three feet apart, prop open the door so everybody doesn't have to touch the door to enter or exit, keep the meeting short and avoid shaking hands.
If a confirmed case is found in the city, access to city buildings may be restricted, visitors may be asked to wear masks and employees will be discouraged from going between buildings.
The plan also includes increased telecommuting, especially if the employee lives in a town that has been quarantined.
There are 10 extra days of sick time for those who either get the bird flu, are quarantined because of it or have to take care of a household member who has it.
Under the plan, departments identified current employees with transferable skills and retirees who could be asked to come back to work. They have identified their essential employees and suppliers of critical materials and services and what they would do without them.
The city received $2,000 from Kane County for pandemic flu preparations. It is buying surgical masks and hand sanitizer dispensers, which will be located throughout city buildings. The sanitizer would kill flu virus on people's hands. The masks would help prevent spread through airborne droplets.
Deep within the plan is speculation about what would happen economically if a pandemic strikes. Officials expect people would avoid shopping malls, restaurants and other public spaces, which could lead to loss of 3 to 60 percent of sales tax revenue, depending on the severity of the outbreak.
The last two pandemics to hit U.S. soil were the Hong Kong flu in 1968 and the Asian flu in 1957. The most deadly pandemic in modern times remains the Spanish flu of 1918, which is estimated to have killed more than 50 million people worldwide.
Historically, pandemics occur in two or three waves of eight to 12 weeks; the city expects that its absenteeism could reach 40 percent during each wave of a bird flu pandemic.
The total number of human cases of avian flu reported to the World Health Organization, beginning in 2003, is 357. Of those cases, 225 people have died. The latest was a 31-year-old woman in East Jakarta, Indonesia.
The first recorded human case was found in Hong Kong in 1997. Presently, there are outbreaks in Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. Cases have occurred throughout Asia, in the Middle East, in Africa and in Europe.
Humans catch the disease from birds, typically poultry, who shed virus in their feces. Human-to-human transmission remains rare, usually limited to people in close contact. However, health officials worry that, as more humans catch bird flu, the virus will mutate into one that can be easily passed from human-to-human.