‘Be prepared for the worst and hope for the best’

County DOH holds public health drill

Posted

A grocery store employee allegedly contaminates produce with hepatitis A, an inflammatory condition that occurs within the liver and transmitted by consuming water or food that was contaminated by the excrement of a person infected with the virus.

How is this handled? Who or what agencies do exactly what?

To prepare for an outbreak of a public health hazard the Nassau County Department of Health conducted a preparedness drill at the Lawrence Country Club on May 9, between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Residents served as volunteers and the department trained for one of the many emergencies – epidemics, natural disasters and biochemical attacks – it might have to handle or has in the past.

Volunteers sat at one of several tables, where a vaccinator would mime an injection of water, not an actual hepatitis vaccine. “We have to be prepared for large numbers of residents,” said Dr. Lawrence Eisenstein, the commissioner of the Department of Health. “When we did the flu vaccine in early February, we had, I want to say, 100 people waiting when we opened the door.”

The Department of Health has more than 20 locations across the county that would be used in the event of a public health crisis. The events are staffed by a combination of department employees and its volunteer medical reserve corps, which is made up of nearly 1,000 medical professionals, including doctors and nurses to social workers and veterinarians. “We constantly bring our newer staff into these events to get them ready,” said Mary Ellen Lorraine, spokeswoman for the Department of Health. “We want to keep everyone up to date.”

Ian Hnizdo, a Westbury resident who interned with the department sat across the table from Elise Molloy, a public health nurse who prepared a mock injection. Hnizdo said that he may be in Molly’s place in a couple years, “I came down to volunteer, so I could gain an idea of how the operation would run,” he said.

While this program was designed for a specific crisis, the department practices different situations. They’ve done drills for mass shootings and held actual point of dispensing events in February and during Hurricane Sandy, dispensed flu free flu shots to residents, and tetanus shots to first responders, respectively. There was also a hepatitis A scare in Nassau County in 2012. Einstein noted that they happen nearly every day across the county.

Organization during the drill is vital because while everyone appeared to be in a good mood, and a cooling spring breeze was flowing in from an opened door, a real public health emergency would have a decidedly different atmosphere. It would be all hands-on deck.

“In an emergency the entire department comes to respond,” Eisenstein said. “Everything else can wait.” “We’re a 24/7 department,” Lorrain added. “We’re prepared, we’ve trained for this.”

The drill also helps familiarize the public with the concept. “I think the most important thing is for people to stay alert to the government’s messaging,” Eisenstein said. “We prepare for all kinds of man-made and natural disasters. It’s hard to say what’s the worst case, be prepared for the worst and hope for the best.”