Newswise — The University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security is pulling together 23 national avian flu experts from avian flu research, public health agencies, vaccine and anti-viral manufacturing companies, business preparedness experts, and first-responder experts for an all-day symposium this Friday to give the latest information on this threat. The University of Maryland School of Medicine is one of three sites in the country where human testing is underway on the first avian flu human vaccine. Of particular interest to Marylanders' will be a late addition to the program: a not-yet-published study by UMBC on emergency preparedness in Maryland. Of particular interest to the business community will be updates on what businesses need to do to protect themselves and their workers. The speakers include: Dr. James Campbell, the principal investigator on the H5N1 avian flu vaccine clinical trials -- will provide an up to date assessment of the U.S. readiness in providing avian flu vaccines;
Dr. Roland Levandowski of NIAID, -- latest government views on vaccine development, distribution, and manufacture;
Dr. Philip Russell, Professor emeritus of Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and Dr. Rahul Singhvi, CEO of Novavax, Inc. " latest report on the manufacturing readiness of the pharmaceutical industry;
Dr. John H. Biegel of NIAID, one of the foremost government authorities on anti-virals, -- readiness of presently available anti-virals and those promising anti-virals under investigation
Dr. Elin Gursky of the ANSER Institute of Homeland Security, -- report on present readiness of public health officials to impose quarantines in the fact of this threatened pandemic.
Prof. Rick Bissell, UMBC " preview of a not-yet-published pilot study he completed during the summer regarding the Maryland EMS system's preparedness to respond, at the local level, to an epidemic disease outbreak (of either natural cause or bioterrorism). County and local provider agencies were queried directly, their plans were reviewed, and several participated in nominal group discussions designed to explore barriers and options for a local EMS response to epidemics. The scenario utilized was an outbreak of a severe flu-like illness that affects ten percent of Maryland's population within a 6-week time period, or about 550,000 people. The findings were sobering: few agencies have plans for this contingency, many plans are based on poor assumptions (i.e. mutual aid will be available from surrounding counties), the role of EMS is poorly defined for such situations, agencies lack fall-back personnel for extended overload situations, and communications systems are unlikely to be able to handle the load. Additionally, local EMS agencies have been poorly integrated into county infectious disease response plans. The poor interface between EMS and public health has left both sides insufficiently educated about the other's capabilities, strategies, and limits."
All of the details are at this web site: http://www.law.umaryland.edu/conference_detail.asp?conf=23
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