N.D. has action plan in event of avian flu

North Dakota is ready with an action plan to handle the spread of bird flu, including preventive measures such as isolation and quarantine, a senior state health official said Thursday.

The department is now preparing regional and local action plans, said Kirby Kruger, state epidemiologist for the North Dakota Department of Health.

Unlike neighboring Minnesota, the department has not estimated the possible number of North Dakota infections or deaths in the event the avian flu ever reached the state.

“We have not tried to predict (the flu in North Dakota),” Kruger said, adding, “We treat this as a very serious situation.”

Features of the state’s pandemic flu response plan include emergency response, increased surveillance, communication, public education and treatment with a particular type of anti-viral drug, Kruger said.

So far, no vaccine is available for this particular strain of flu, Kruger said. The state Health Department and state pharmacies have limited supplies of the anti-viral drug oseltamivir, marketed as Tamiflu, a pill which has shown to have some limited effect in treating people with the bird flu, he said. But it would not help much, he added, if an outbreak of pandemic proportions occurred.

As of now, Kruger said, there was no immediate threat to the North Dakota residents from the bird flu, and there’s never been a documented North Dakota case of the strain that has shown up in Asia. To date, he said, there are no documented cases anywhere of person-to-person infections of the avian flu.