The Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) hosted a three-day in country workshop, which began on February 3 2009, in an effort to strengthen the capacity of member states to detect and respond to outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI) with emphasis on Human Influenza. The objectives of the workshop are to strengthen the capacity of health professionals for the detection and early case management of clusters of Severe Acute Respiratory Infections at the level of health facilities; emphasizing the early identification of newly emerging viruses and outbreak investigation of any case or clusters of cases in order to control them in a timely fashion, as well as to provide tools for the improvement of the response capacity of health facilities to sporadic or epidemic outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI).

Participants at the workshop

It is important to underscore that the aim is to reach health providers who will deliver care to patients mostly at in-patient facilities.

Dr. Bonnie Richardson Lake, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Social Development went on to explain the perils of not being prepared for the influenza pandemic here in Anguilla. “Anguilla’s national task force on pandemic influenza has met on several occasions to develop the national influenza pandemic plan. Several members of the task force have also had the opportunity to go overseas and involve themselves in a number of workshops dealing with the topic. We’re pleased to have this opportunity once again to focus on ensuring that we are prepared to respond to pandemic influenza or similar outbreaks. Planning for pandemic influenza has been a challenge in Anguilla due in part to limited resources and competing demands and in addition to these constraints many of us don’t see pandemic influenza as a serious disaster. Our national disaster plans as they relate to hurricane preparedness, have seen great improvements while pandemic influenza planning continues to simmer on the back burner. Anguillians know very well about the need to be prepared for hurricanes. In recent times we have survived Louis and Lenny and the need to be prepared has been etched in our minds. Most recently we experienced Hurricane Omar, so we have no doubts that hurricanes will come. On the other hand when we consider pandemic influenza we might ask ourselves why invest so much time, money and energy to prepare for a disaster that may or may not occur. News stories about Avion flu outbreaks in Asia and other places that may seem far away don’t strike the same chord as a passing hurricane, but let us not be fooled pandemic influenza is a real threat that cannot be ignored. Failure to plan for the possibility of a pandemic influenza outbreak is kin to not boarding up your windows or securing your property during a hurricane.
“It’s time that we become serious about planning for pandemic influenza. Some experts say that such a pandemic is inevitable while others are not so sure, but what we do know is that if and when a pandemic strikes the following things will happen. All countries will be affected, wide spread illness will occur, medical supplies will be inadequate, large numbers of deaths will occur, economic and social disruption will be great and every country must be prepared. Based on our 2001 census data, if Anguilla were to experience an outbreak similar to the influenza epidemic in the 1960’s and 1970’s we would experience about six deaths, thirty one persons requiring hospitalization and one thousand five hundred and fifty persons requiring out patient services. What’s worse is if we were to experience a 1918 type outbreak there would be fifty four deaths, two hundred and fifty four people requiring hospitalization and two thousand seven hundred and ten people requiring out-patient care. Weighing these numbers against the fact that our funeral homes can only accommodate four bodies at a time, we have a thirty two bed hospital, there are no ICU beds or ventilators on island an influenza pandemic would result in over 7000 work days lost which would be a major blow to our economy. We obviously can’t afford to sit back and wait to see what will happen, that is why we are here today. Over the next three days we must look at filling in any gaps in our preparedness plan and begin to examine how this plan will work in practice, because to have a plan on paper and to not test it might lead us to believe that we are prepared when in fact we are not quite ready.
“I realise that we cannot plan for every eventuality and that there were some constraints that we may not overcome in the near future but we must mitigate against some of the risks that pandemic influenza might present. That being said I encourage everyone to take advantage of the technical assistance we have available over the next few days and to work diligently to ensure that Anguilla will be as prepared as possible to face pandemic influenza.”

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