US Public Health Workers May Not Work in Flu Pandemic

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US Public Health Workers May Not Work in Flu Pandemic

By McAlary

Washington 18 April 2006

Nurses are in short supply throughtout the United States

A new study shows that Americans might not be able to count on public

health workers, if an influenza pandemic strikes. Researchers find

that nearly half of public health employees would be unlikely to work

during a major flu outbreak.

The Bush administration is preparing a national plan to respond to a

pandemic, if bird flu adapts to human transmission, but the study

indicates that public health workers might confound the arrangements.

Researchers at the s Hopkins University in Baltimore and Ben-

Gurion University of the Negev in Israel interviewed more than 300

public health workers in three counties in the mid-Atlantic U.S.

state of land. They chose these counties because they are

comparable in size to those served by the vast majority of the

nation's public health departments.

s Hopkins physician Barnett gives the startling main

finding:

" Forty-six-point-two percent of the workers surveyed stated they are

unlikely to report to duty during an influenza pandemic, " he

said. " That is almost half of the public health workforce. "

Barnett says only one-third of those surveyed even felt knowledgeable

about the public health impacts of a flu pandemic.

The findings are similar to a larger survey done last year among

6,200 New York City public health employees, half of whom said they

would be unwilling to report to work during an untreatable infectious

disease outbreak.

A breakdown of the data in the land study shows that doctors and

nurses were more likely to say they would report to work, while

technical and support staff, such as clerical workers, were the least

likely. Barnett says this is because technical and support personnel

do not perceive themselves as important as clinical staff, but he

says their perception is wrong.

" This is critical, because people who answer telephones, people who

perform the basic computer technician activities, for example, in

health departments, are really the glue that will keep the public

health infrastructure running during an influenza pandemic, "

emphasized Barnett.

The researchers say current U.S. pandemic preparedness plans take

into account some health personnel shortages, due to illness from

influenza, but Barnett says public health workers are clearly not

prepared for a crisis.

" I think, we need to reassess how we are doing training for public

health workers in the United States, addressing willingness to

respond as a variable in our curricula, not just knowledge and

skills, " he said. " We cannot assume that, just because we are

training people in skill sets, that they will take those skill sets

and willingly apply them. "

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-04-18-voa73.cfm

Barnett's study appears in the April issue of the journal BMC Public

Health.