Bird Flu Center

An outline on how a bird flu outbreak might be recognized and contained has made New York City officials come up with a flu pandemic plan to help settle the way limited resources such as ventilators and antiviral medicine should be distributed in such a case. Considering the fact that the city is one of the main gateways to the United States and also one of the most densely populated cities in the world, citizens should take the possibility of an avian flu pandemic very seriously. NY City’s Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said that the city would have to rely on itself rather than federal authorities and that the need to vaccinate people and inform them on the issue is stringent.

Experts say that in a worst case scenario there would be 2.5 million infected inhabitants of the city and more than 50,000 deaths. Medicine and specific equipment would then be difficult to obtain and it is known it would take several months for a vaccine to be developed after a new strain of the virus has been found. Early detection, achieved through communication with the city doctors, is very important, therefore the Department of Health has developed a system that monitors information such as ambulance runs, emergency room visits and pharmacy sales.