News and Alerts
Posted: May 19, 2008
Contact: Dr. Leigh Hall
Sonoma County Deputy Health Officer
(707) 565-4401
Sonoma County Health Facilities "Gear Up" to Conduct Pandemic Flu Disaster Drill
Santa Rosa, CA - On Tuesday morning, Sonoma County hospitals, clinics and skilled nursing facilities will be donning specialized equipment to practice the use of personal protective equipment and testing emergency communication systems as part of a county-wide preparedness exercise. The exercise, referred to as "Code Pandora," plays out a hypothetical scenario in which the dangerous H5N1 virus (otherwise know as "avian flu" or "bird flu") has begun to spread rapidly from human to human in countries outside the United States. The spread of pandemic flu to the United States is considered imminent. In the hypothetical scenario, the Governor has issued an alert to county preparedness agencies to "gear-up" and prepare for what will likely be the first cases of H5N1 flu in California.
In what is perhaps the largest preparedness exercise of the year, the county's hospitals plus Creekside Convalescent Hospital, Sonoma County Indian Health Project, Southwest Area Health Center, Alliance Medical Center and the Sonoma County Chapter of the American Red Cross will be coordinating activities to prepare for a large scale communicable disease disaster. With assistance of federal grants from HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration), hospitals have purchased equipment to help isolate ill and potentially infectious patients from others and protect the health care staff themselves from becoming sick. The County Public Health Division will also be testing their communication system by sending a "Health Alert" to emergency partners, infectious disease nurses at local hospitals and the over 1,000 health care providers in the County advising them about infection control policies to care for staff and patients.
Dr. Leigh Hall, Sonoma County Deputy Health Officer and lead on County public health emergency planning explained, "While we hope we never need to notify our partners to use this equipment for a real event, the more we practice the better prepared the community will be for any large-scale emergency." Continued Hall, "Each time we conduct an exercise, we learn about parts of our overall county plan that need to be improved - these exercises are invaluable in helping emergency providers work together to coordinate services and care in a disaster."
Those visiting Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital or Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa on Tuesday morning may think staff are preparing for a space-walk rather than infectious disease. Equipment for health personnel includes full-suits and ventilators. Staff will practice working while wearing equipment and checking for proper function and fit of ventilators and N95 respirator masks. Santa Rosa Memorial staffs will set-up a temporary triage tent at 8:00 AM and will begin evaluating and caring for "mock" patient volunteers from Santa Rosa Junior College and Windsor High School.
The Sonoma County Office of Education will also be participating in the exercise. The school districts have been actively planning for how to implement school closures, provide distance learning and identifying the myriad of details associated with a potential school closure and the need to practice "social distancing" to avoid the spread of disease between sick and well individuals.
For more information about the County's preparedness plans and activities, visit: