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Contact: Cindy Parmenter
Director of Communications
(303) 692-2013 - Office
(303) 891-8382 – Pager
For Immediate Release Thursday, September 23, 2004
MASS VACCINATION EXERCISE PLANNED IN SOUTHEASTERN
COLORADO
DENVER – One of the largest bioterrorism exercises in the state’s history
will be staged on Saturday, October 16, when public health workers in nine
southeastern Colorado counties conduct a mass vaccination clinic exercise.
Participating in the exercise, being held to practice the scheduling of
the kind of mass vaccination clinic that might be needed in the case of a
bioterrorism attack or natural disease epidemic, are Baca; Bent; Cheyenne;
Crowley; Huerfano; Kiowa; Las Animas; Otero; and Prowers counties.
The clinics are scheduled to open at 8 a.m. on Saturday, October 16, with
actual flu vaccinations for emergency responders and members of their
families. Then at 9 a.m., the clinics will be opened to the public, who
also will be able to receive free flu shots as part of the exercise. In
the event of a real incident, emergency responders would have to be
immunized first so that they would remain healthy and be able to care for
the public.
Jacqueline Brown, the director of the Prowers County Public Health Nursing
Service who also is a key organizer of the exercise, said that as many as
10,000 people, or approximately 10 percent of the population of the nine
counties, may receive flu shots during the exercise, scheduled to conclude
at 3 p.m. The staff participants will discuss and critique the exercise as
a group at the end of the day.
The goals of preparedness plans nationwide include being able to immunize
all residents of an area within a few days in the case of a terrorism
incident involving a biologic agent.
According to Brown, public health officials in the nine counties have been
working with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s
Bioterrorism and Emergency Preparedness Program since January 2004 to plan
the exercise. This exercise is part of the state’s overall Homeland
Security strategy, which includes training and exercising emergency
responses to acts of bioterrorism.
That planning, Brown said, has included many levels of preparation,
including a table-top exercise at which such an event was simulated and an
August regional warehouse drill at which the receipt and distribution of
medications from the Strategic National Stockpile, a national repository
of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, was simulated.
The 10,000 doses of flu vaccine, being donated by the Department of Public
Health and Environment for the exercise, will not actually be delivered
until close to the time of the event.
According to Brown, in addition to local public health personnel from the
nine counties, law enforcement officials; fire departments; emergency
medical personnel; local hospital staff; and local elected officials have
been involved in the planning and will be a part of the exercise.
The participating public health agencies are the Baca County Nursing
Services; the Bent County Nursing Service Authority; Cheyenne County
Public Health; Crowley County Public Health Nursing Service; Kiowa County
Nursing Service; the Las Animas/Huerfano Counties District Health
Department; the Otero County Department of Health; and the Prowers County
Public Health Nursing Service.
Volunteers also have been recruited in each county to help staff the
clinics. In Prowers County, members of the Lions Club will direct parking
and bilingual senior citizens will help obtain needed information from
persons who want to receive flu shots but don’t speak English. Local
physicians and other medical personnel also will be available to examine
persons who exhibit some kind of illness when they arrive to receive a flu
shot.
Brown explained that law enforcement personnel will provide security at
the clinics, to simulate the assistance that might be required in a real
incident in which there is high demand for the available protective
vaccines. Such vaccines could be in limited supply in the case of such an
incident.
In Bent County, the Las Animas Police Department will assist with parking
and traffic control at the clinic where members of the local Lions Club
will serve as greeters. The Kiowa County Ministerial Alliance will provide
lunch for the volunteers at the Kiowa County clinic in Eads while the
county van is being made available to transport seniors to the clinic from
the east and west ends of the county.
In Baca County, the Longhorn Steakhouse in Springfield will provide lunch
for the volunteers.
Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) ham radio operators from
throughout the area will serve as communications links for the nine
counties and the various agencies involved.
Brown said, “It has been great to strategize as a region as we would have
to in a true emergency. We have learned that we can depend on each other
and have developed new-found respect among all of the involved agencies. I
have learned that I can depend on them and they have learned they can
depend on public health. We also now know that, regardless, we are all
committed to doing everything we can to keep our communities safe.”
However, Brown also emphasized, “I think we are all going to learn so much
from the exercise. We all know that we aren’t going to do everything
perfectly. That’s the point of an exercise – to identify areas that need
improvement. And, the community will learn what emergency preparedness is
all about.”
Kris Stokke, the Lamar-based regional public health preparedness planner
for the state Bioterrorism and Emergency Preparedness Program, said the
exercise is the outgrowth of discussions that began after the region
completed the required plans for organizing mass immunization clinics in
the case of a bioterrorism incident or natural disease outbreak, such as
pandemic flu.
The region then sought and obtained a $30,400 grant from the Office of
Preparedness, Security and Fire Safety, which is part of the U.S. Office
of Homeland Security. A $75,000 contract with the Department of Public
Health and Environment also helped fund the planning, development and
execution of the exercise.
Explaining that planning began in earnest in January 2004, Stokke said,
“When you know there is going to be a full-scale exercise, you look at it
very differently than when you have just written a plan.”
Activities on the day of the exercise will be coordinated from an
emergency operations center at the Otero County Health Department in La
Junta.
The center will be staffed by the Otero County Sheriff’s Department; the
Otero County public health director; and by representatives of various
other segments of the community, including legal, medical, pharmaceutical
and emergency medical services.
Several other mass vaccination clinic exercises also are planned in
Colorado in October:
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Tuesday, October 12, Boulder County Health Department.
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Saturday, October 16, Pueblo-City-County Health Department.
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Wednesday, October 20, Jefferson County Health Department
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Saturday, October 23, Weld County Health Department and Larimer County
Department of Health and Environment.
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Thursday, October 28; Saturday, October 30; and Friday, November 5,
Tri-County Health Department, which serves Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas
counties.
The 2004 mass immunization clinic exercises are a follow-up to the 2003
tabletop exercise conducted by the Department of Public Health and
Environment’s Bioterrorism and Emergency Preparedness Program. More
than 400 agencies from throughout the state were involved in that
exercise, including public health; law enforcement; county coroners;
emergency medical services; and hospitals.
Clinic locations for the October 16 event in southeastern Colorado are:
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Baca County: Baca County Fairgrounds, 900 block of County Road 24,
Springfield.
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Bent County: Las Animas High School cafeteria, 300 Grove St., Las
Animas.
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Cheyenne County: Cheyenne County Community Building, 425 S. Seventh St.
West, Cheyenne Wells.
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Crowley County: Ward Middle School, 1001 S. Main St., Ordway.
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Kiowa County: Kiowa County Courthouse, 1305 Goff St., Eads.
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Huerfano County: Huerfano County Community Center, 928 Russell Ave.,
Walsenburg.
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Las Animas County: Trinidad Community Center, 1309 Beshoar Ave.,
Trinidad.
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Otero County: La Junta Middle School, Ninth Street and Smithland, La
Junta.
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Prowers County: Lamar Community/Senior Resource Center, 407 E. Olive
St., Lamar.
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