Worst-case scenario underlies US pandemic plan

[April 28, 2009]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two million dead. Hospitals overwhelmed. Schools closed. Swaths of empty seats at baseball stadiums and houses of worship. An economic recovery snuffed out. We're nowhere close to what government planners say would be a worst-case scenario: a global flu pandemic. But government leaders at all levels, and major employers, have spent nearly four years planning for one in series of exercises.

Their reports, reviewed by The Associated Press, and interviews with participants paint a grim picture of what could happen if the swine flu gets severely out of control.

A full-scale pandemic -- if it ever comes -- could be expected to claim the lives of about 2 percent of those infected, about 2 million Americans.

The government estimates that a pandemic like the 1918 Spanish flu would sicken 90 million Americans, or about 30 percent of the population. Of those, nearly 10 million would have to be admitted to a hospital, and nearly 1.5 million would need intensive care. About 750,000 would need the help of mechanical ventilators to keep breathing.

No one would be immune from the consequences, even those who don't get sick, according to worst-case exercises run by local and national agencies.

Schools would be closed to try to block the spread of illness, for example, but school buses might be used to take flu victims to alternative clinics rather than overcrowded hospitals.

A 2006 report on the Washington region found both Maryland and Virginia would run out of hospital beds within two weeks of a moderate outbreak.

People who got sick would be isolated, and their relatives could be quarantined.

But even if families weren't required to stay home, many would do so to take care of sick relatives, or because they were afraid of getting sick themselves.

Hotels, restaurants and airlines would face loss of business as business travel and meetings would be replaced by teleconferences.

In the cities, commuters who do go to work might bike or walk instead of using mass transit.

People would avoid movie theaters and rent DVDs instead.

In 1918, authorities even called on churches to cancel services, to the chagrin of some pastors.

Society as a whole would go into a defensive crouch, and that would deliver a shock to the economy.

The Trust for America's Health, an independent public health group, estimated in 2007 that a severe pandemic would shrink U.S. output by about 5.5 percent.

Take a breath. Even if the new swine flu from Mexico turns out to be especially aggressive, the worst consequences could be averted.

Although some states are less prepared than others, the nation has made strides in stockpiling antiviral medicines, speeding the production of vaccines and laying down basic public health guidelines.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday that the U.S. is preparing as if the swine flu outbreak were a full pandemic. It is not at that stage and may never reach it.

Disease detectives are following a series of outbreaks, of varying severity, all of which appear to be related to Mexico. A pandemic would spread throughout the world with explosive speed.

The government got serious about worst-case planning during the 2005 bird flu scare, as the lessons of Hurricane Katrina loomed large.

"We have a playbook that was developed and is being followed," said Michael Leavitt, who as secretary of Health and Human Services oversaw pandemic planning for President George W. Bush. "It's a substantially better picture than what we faced three years ago."

___

On the Net:

U.S. information on swine flu:
http://www.pandemicflu.gov/

[Associated Press; By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and EILEEN SULLIVAN]

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.