For Release: IMMEDIATE
Date: May 9, 2006

Public Health & Emergency Response officials to conduct Pandemic Flu Exercise

RALEIGH – The state will conduct an exercise this month to test its preparedness against the possibility of a pandemic flu outbreak in North Carolina. The Pandemic CIPHER 2006 exercise begins this week. Just as might happen in a real pandemic event, the first part of the exercise will consist of computer messages tracking a flu outbreak elsewhere in the world. The major portion of the drill will be conducted Wednesday-Thursday, May 24-25.

According to State Health Director Dr. Leah Devlin, these vital training exercises are being conducted to test the state’s preparations for a potential pandemic flu outbreak and to identify gaps in training, preparation and procedures. The goal of the exercise will be to overwhelm the state's health system.

“It is the duty and responsibility of the public health community as well as emergency management to prepare and train for a day we pray never comes,” Dr. Devlin said. “But we can’t close our eyes and hope for the best. If a pandemic flu erupts within our state, we will be prepared to move quickly, firmly and responsibly to meet this most serious threat to public health and safety. Exercises like this one are vital to our preparations.”

The N.C. Division of Public Health is partnering with the N.C. Division of Emergency Management to conduct the exercise. The State Emergency Operation Center and the Public Health Command Center, both in Raleigh, will be activated as part of the exercise. Field activities will take place in the counties of Guilford, Henderson, Lenoir, Pasquotank, Surry and Union.

"Part of our job in Emergency Management is to plan for the worst case scenario and then test our ability to respond to it," said Doug Hoell, director of the Division of Emergency Management. "The motto of this exercise is Communication + Cooperation + Collaboration = Integrated Response. With our partners in the state Division of Public Health, hospitals, and the local public health and emergency management communities – we are doing everything we can to prepare for the possibility that a pandemic flu could happen."

County partners in the exercise will include personnel from their emergency management and public health departments as well as personnel from local hospitals, including: Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, Greensboro; Park Ridge Hospital, Fletcher; Lenoir Memorial Hospital, Kinston; Albemarle Hospital, Elizabeth City; Northern Hospital of Surry County, Mount Airy; Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital, Elkin; and Carolinas Medical Center-Union, Monroe.

MEDIA NOTE:

Coverage of the May 24-25 event will be limited to pictures only because exercise participants are being graded on their performance and cannot stop what they are doing to do interviews. Therefore, media outlets should arrange interviews with incident commanders, public health and hospital officials in their coverage areas prior to the beginning of the exercise. Contact information for those persons is listed below.

• Guilford County, Emergency Management: Ron Campbell, (336) 641 6569
• Guilford County, Public Health: Merle Green, (336) 641-3288
• Henderson County, Emergency Management: Rocky Hyder, 828-697-4728
• Henderson County, Public Health: Thomas D. Bridges, (828) 698-6019
• Lenoir County, Emergency Management: Roger Dail, 252-559-6126
• Lenoir County, Public Health: Joey V. Huff, (252) 526-4212
• Pasquotank County, Emergency Management: Christy Saunders, 252-335-4444
• Pasquotank County, Public Health: Jerry Parks, (252) 338-4404
• Surry County, Emergency Management: John Shelton, 336-783-9000
• Surry County, Public Health: David Stone, (336) 401-8411
• Union County, Emergency Management: Pat Beekman, 704-283-3536
• Union County, Public Health: Jenny Kirksey, (704) 296-4800
• NC Medical Society: Mike Edwards, (919) 833-3836, ext. 112
• NC Hospital Association: Don Dalton, (919) 677-4243

###