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Cities set up mutual aid system in case of a bird flu outbreak
The City of Westmount has signed an agreement with several reconstituted Montreal suburban cities for mutual assistance in the event of emergency situations involving an epidemic of avian flu.
According to Director General Bruce St. Louis, the biggest risk—if an anticipated avian flu pandemic were finally to break out—would be its effect on a large number of City workers while residents also fell sick.
Since the projected time frame for a potential outbreak would be late November of 2007 through the following winter, Westmount wants to be prepared to cope with events like snowstorms and deliver regular municipal services if up to two-thirds of its staff booked off ill.
The entente supposes that if one or more of the cities is weathering the situation better and have more workers available, the others that have been hit harder would be able to borrow staff who could perform important tasks like driving service vehicles or keeping the arena and other public facilities in
operation.
“There’s compensation that has to be provided,” said St. Louis, noting one of the agreement’s clauses. But because Westmount will be part of the agreement, the City will be first in line if some other municipality that isn’t part of the group makes the same request.
“That happens on occasion,” he admitted. “You have a city that says, ‘look we’re really stuck here, is there anybody out there who can help us?’ Our first priority would be to those cities who form part of this entente, then if something else were to happen, council would have to make a decision.”
St. Louis said the agreement also fleshes out administrative details, such as how employees would continue to be paid if payroll staff were unavailable. In essence, however, it says that “if we have the ability to provide help that we will,” he added.
In a presentation to Westmount’s Healthy City Project in April this year, Dr. John Carsley said health authorities worldwide are preparing for a seemingly inevitable avian flu pandemic.
“Clearly because of the widespread presence of bird flu for a long period of time, we are closer to a pandemic than we have been recently,” he said. While rejecting the idea that a flu pandemic is imminent, he maintained that the probability of a human strain of bird flu emerging increases the longer the current strain continues to circulate in birds.
According to information posted on a Quebec health ministry web site which is updated daily, currently there is no avian influenza pandemic.
“For the moment, the bird flu caused by the Asian strain of the H5N1 influenza virus is not present in the Americas,” the ministry emphasized. “Birds found in cities and birds enjoyed as pets have never been implicated in transmitting the virus to humans.”
http://www.birdflubreakingnews.com/templates/birdflu/window.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.westmountexaminer. com%2Farticle-58803-Cities-set-up-mutual-aid-system-in-case-of-a-bird-flu-outbreak.html
The City of Westmount has signed an agreement with several reconstituted Montreal suburban cities for mutual assistance in the event of emergency situations involving an epidemic of avian flu.
According to Director General Bruce St. Louis, the biggest risk—if an anticipated avian flu pandemic were finally to break out—would be its effect on a large number of City workers while residents also fell sick.
Since the projected time frame for a potential outbreak would be late November of 2007 through the following winter, Westmount wants to be prepared to cope with events like snowstorms and deliver regular municipal services if up to two-thirds of its staff booked off ill.
The entente supposes that if one or more of the cities is weathering the situation better and have more workers available, the others that have been hit harder would be able to borrow staff who could perform important tasks like driving service vehicles or keeping the arena and other public facilities in
operation.
“There’s compensation that has to be provided,” said St. Louis, noting one of the agreement’s clauses. But because Westmount will be part of the agreement, the City will be first in line if some other municipality that isn’t part of the group makes the same request.
“That happens on occasion,” he admitted. “You have a city that says, ‘look we’re really stuck here, is there anybody out there who can help us?’ Our first priority would be to those cities who form part of this entente, then if something else were to happen, council would have to make a decision.”
St. Louis said the agreement also fleshes out administrative details, such as how employees would continue to be paid if payroll staff were unavailable. In essence, however, it says that “if we have the ability to provide help that we will,” he added.
In a presentation to Westmount’s Healthy City Project in April this year, Dr. John Carsley said health authorities worldwide are preparing for a seemingly inevitable avian flu pandemic.
“Clearly because of the widespread presence of bird flu for a long period of time, we are closer to a pandemic than we have been recently,” he said. While rejecting the idea that a flu pandemic is imminent, he maintained that the probability of a human strain of bird flu emerging increases the longer the current strain continues to circulate in birds.
According to information posted on a Quebec health ministry web site which is updated daily, currently there is no avian influenza pandemic.
“For the moment, the bird flu caused by the Asian strain of the H5N1 influenza virus is not present in the Americas,” the ministry emphasized. “Birds found in cities and birds enjoyed as pets have never been implicated in transmitting the virus to humans.”
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