Dr. Hill asks doctor input in pandemic flu planning

The AMA immediate past president says it's critical to keep physicians in the loop to ensure timely detection and efficient management of an outbreak.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Sept. 4, 2006.

Local public health departments need to take steps to make sure that physicians and other first responders in the health care system know what to do when pandemic influenza hits to detect the earliest cases and manage the outbreak as it spreads, says AMA Immediate Past President J. Edward Hill, MD.

He was speaking at the National Assn. of Counties annual conference in Chicago last month.

"The majority of America's doctors want to provide medical help in the event of a disaster but don't feel prepared to do so," he said.

Dr. Hill called for public health departments to build surge capacity into laboratory systems, create links to local medical societies and have strategies for communicating about infection control -- particularly early in a pandemic, when vaccines most likely will not yet be available. In addition, he warned that plans need to be in place to prepare for surges in the number of patients who need care and isolation at a time when the health care work force could be affected by high rates of illness.

"Sick nurses, doctors and health professionals won't be able to come to work, and hospitals and surge centers may be relying on a skeleton staff," Dr. Hill said.

The AMA immediate past president said he expects physicians and the public health system to handle any impending pandemic far better than the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak. Improvements in technology mean that viruses can be genetically sequenced quickly, and antiviral medications exist that can mediate their impact. The availability of antibiotics also means that those who do contract the pandemic strain of flu will be less likely to die of secondary bacterial infections.