Vermont Issues Health Advisory Following Report of Avian Influenza in Toronto
THIS IS AN EXERCISE: THIS IS NOT A REAL EVENT.
For Immediate Release: July 17, 2006
Media Contact: Communications Office
Vermont Department of Health
000-000-0000
BURLINGTON – The Vermont Department of Health issued a Health Advisory today to the state’s health care providers after a confirmed case of avian influenza (H5N1) was discovered in Toronto. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that a Toronto resident may have contracted the disease in Australia.
The Health Department has requested that Vermont’s health care providers heighten surveillance for persons with symptoms of influenza, and to notify the Health Department of people that seek treatment who have a recent travel history (less than 10 days) to Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam or Australia.
Travelers returning from effected countries who develop fever with a cough or sore throat within 10 days of returning should contact your physician for evaluation. Ill individuals seeking care should call their doctor's office or the emergency department before presenting for care so the proper disease control measures can take place.
The CDC is not recommending that people avoid travel to Canada, but continues to advise people against non-essential travel to countries experiencing H5N1 outbreaks.
“Vermont will take every precaution as the state responds to the first confirmed case of H5N1 in North America,” said Dave Cote, Acting Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Health. “Presently, there is only one confirmed case in Toronto, and we are in close contact with Canadian health officials. The State of Vermont has a plan in place to respond to the current situation and we will keep Vermonters fully informed.”
Vermont health care providers have been advised to look for people who have a temperature greater than 100.4 degrees with a cough or sore throat, or acute respiratory distress.
Limited transmission person-to-person transmission of H5N1 has been confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) since January 2006 in Indonesia, and cases continue to occur in Southeast Asia.
Since July of 2006 when human-to-human transmission was confirmed in Southeast Asia, the United States has been on alert for pandemic influenza.
A new strain of H5N1 first emerged in 1997, and has caused outbreaks among domestic poultry in wild migratory birds in several Asian, European and African countries.
For more information on pandemic flu, please visit: http://healthvermont.gov, or call the Vermont Department of Health Public Information line at 000-000-0000.
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