TAIWAN - Prevention and control efforts
TAIPEI UNVEILS TAIWAN'S FIRST SHELTER FOR
POTENTIAL BIRD FLU DISEASE CASES
Source: Liberty Times
August 24, 2006
The Taipei City Government's Department of Health has spent NT$850,000 to create Taiwan's first bird flu shelter. The facility opened its doors on Wednesday. An official from the Department of Health said that the design of the facility was based on the experiences of Vietnam in fighting bird flu. The facility is divided into two sections, with one portion to house people who have been diagnosed with certainty of having contracted bird flu. The other portion is for people who have symptoms, but who have yet to be confirmed having bird flu. In addition, medical personnel will be confined to one of the two areas and ambulances that approach the facility will have different entry points depending on whether the patients they are carrying have contracted bird flu. Each teaching and education room in the shelter has windows that can be opened to guarantee that air can circulate.
Over 30 foreign scholars and experts that took part in the Countermeasures to Combat Infectious Diseases in Asia conference on Wednesday visited Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital to view a drill that was carried out aimed at preventing and treating bird flu. After that, they then went to what used to be Chunghsing Elementary School located on Kaifeng Street to take a look at a sample structure that was built on the school's campus. They then were given a briefing by Yen Mu-yung, the director of Center for Disease Control, which is operated under the city government's Department of Health.
The deputy director of the Center for Disease Control, Lin Pi-fen, said that should there be an outbreak of bird flu with some 20,000 or 30,000 infected, this number would exceed the ability of hospitals in the area to care for the sick. Those who only have mild cases of bird flu would be required to move to the shelter at the school for therapy.
According to plans drafted by the Department of Health, in the initial stages of an outbreak of bird flu, those infected would be transferred to Hoping Hospital, which has a special ward to deal with contagious diseases. However, should the number of patients outstrip the hospital's ability to handle them, patients would then begin to be housed in the Song De Branch of the Taipei City Hospital network. Should this facility become full, facilities at the Kung Kuan Branch of National Taiwan University Hospital would be tapped. Once that hospital is full, patients will be sent to the Taipei City Hospital's Yang Ming Branch, followed by Sungshan Hospital, Kuantu Hospital, Wan Fang Hospital, the Zhong Xiao Branch of the Taipei City Hospital, and Chen Hsing Hospital. Schools located nearby each one of these hospitals could be made into shelters should the outbreak reach that level of severity. The first school that would be converted into a shelter for bird flu victims would be Lungshan Junior High School, which is located in the vicinity of Hoping Hospital.
Should schools be converted into shelters, they will not look much different from the outside than they do now. Patients will enter from the main gate of the school, and the first thing they will see is an outdoor disease clinic. Any patient who appears to have contracted bird flu or who has come into contact with someone who has contracted the disease will first enter this clinic. The clinics will have the same function as the fever clinics set up outside hospitals during the SARS outbreak. They will act as a first line of diagnosis. Anyone who is confirmed to have contracted bird flu will be required to go to the right. Should they be in a critical situation, they will be rushed to an emergency treatment station and to the hospital if appropriate. Those who have only contracted a mild case of bird flue will be required to remain at the shelter to undergo treatment. Those patients who doctors cannot determine whether they have contracted the disease will go to another area of the school where they will be kept under observation for two days.
The beds in the wards that will be set up in schools will be made from school desks and chairs, after which a mattress will be set on top. In addition, IV hangers will be made from various items available in the classroom. Each room in the ward for patients confirmed to have contracted bird flu will have six beds. Meanwhile, three people will be housed in a room in the area for those who it cannot yet be determined whether they have contracted the flu.
After viewing the facilities, the deputy director of Tokyo's Department of Health said that the facilities in the shelters should be ample to deal with any outbreak of the flu and that there should not be a reason to acquire new equipment. All that will need to be done is to refit the schools appropriately and properly train the personnel manning the facilities. He added that it will also be important to maintain avenues of communication with residents in the areas around the shelters to prevent any panic.
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