OBAMA DECLARES SWINE FLU A NATIONAL EMERGENCY

AZG DAILY
27-10-2009

Social

President Barack Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national
emergency, giving his health chief the power to let hospitals move
emergency rooms offsite to speed treatment and protect noninfected
patients, AP reported.

The declaration, signed Friday night and announced Saturday, comes with
the disease more prevalent than ever in the country and production
delays undercutting the government’s initial, optimistic estimates
that as many as 120 million doses of the vaccine could be available
by mid-October.

Health authorities say more than 1,000 people in the United States,
including almost 100 children, have died from the strain of flu known
as H1N1, and 46 states have widespread flu activity. So far only 11
million doses have gone out to health departments, doctor’s offices
and other providers, according to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention officials.

Administration officials said the declaration was a pre-emptive move
designed to make decisions easier when they need to be made. Officials
said the move was not in response to any single development.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius now has authority
to bypass federal rules when opening alternative care sites, such as
offsite hospital centers at schools or community centers if hospitals
seek permission.

Some hospitals have opened drive-thrus and drive-up tent clinics to
screen and treat swine flu patients. The idea is to keep infectious
people out of regular emergency rooms and away from other sick
patients.

Hospitals could modify patient rules – for example, requiring them
to give less information during a hectic time – to quicken access to
treatment, with government approval, under the declaration.

It also addresses a financial question for hospitals – reimbursement
for treating people at sites not typically approved. For instance,
federal rules do not allow hospitals to put up treatment tents more
than 250 yards away from the doors; if the tents are 300 yards or
more away, typically federal dollars won’t go to pay for treatment.

Administration officials said those rules might not make sense while
fighting the swine flu, especially if the best piece of pavement is
in the middle of a parking lot and some medical centers already are
putting in place parts of their emergency plans.

The national emergency declaration was the second of two steps needed
to give Sebelius extraordinary powers during a crisis.

On April 26, the administration declared swine flu a public health
emergency, allowing the shipment of roughly 12 million doses of
flu-fighting medications from a federal stockpile to states in case
they eventually needed them. At the time, there were 20 confirmed
cases in the U.S. of people recovering easily. There was no vaccine
against swine flu, but the CDC had taken the initial step necessary
for producing one.

"As a nation, we have prepared at all levels of government, and as
individuals and communities, taking unprecedented steps to counter
the emerging pandemic," Obama wrote in Saturday’s declaration.

He said the pandemic keeps evolving, the rates of illness are rising
rapidly in many areas and there’s a potential "to overburden health
care resources."

The government now hopes to have about 50 million doses of swine
flu vaccine out by mid-November and 150 million in December. The flu
virus has to be grown in chicken eggs, and the yield hasn’t been as
high as was initially hoped, officials have said.

"Many millions" of Americans have had swine flu so far, according
to an estimate that CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden gave Friday. The
government doesn’t test everyone to confirm swine flu so it doesn’t
have an exact count. He also said there have been more than 20,000
hospitalizations.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress