Escambia County Flu Local News and Planning
Although there have been reports of H5N1 found in the US, this is not the highly pathogenic strain that would cause a pandemic.
Within Escambia County, we have been monitoring influenza-like illnesses from within our sentinel physician program. This is a group of physicians who have volunteered to take samples and forward them to the Center for Disease Control for testing.
We maintain communications with our state headquarters and federal partners as it applies to pandemic planning. We are involved in the state planning process and are modeling our plans after the state model.
Providing education and information is a key aspect of pandemic planning. Our goal is to help educate the public about bird/avian flu and the simple things that will go a long way to delay or prevent the spread of disease, such as proper hygiene.