This is a suggestion for Emergency Preparedness Coordinators or leaders to do within wards or neighborhoods. You can follow this outline or use bits and pieces to create your own custom Pandemic Flu Activity.

Title: Pandemic Flu & You
Purpose: To provide background information about the pandemic flu and get people prepared for a pandemic by providing handouts and possibly even a small starter kit.
Information: Read over then share some key points found in the following document from the CDC. Just 6 Pages.

Videos: Show a short video during the class. The one on the bottom of the page in the link is only 28 min. Pandemic Flu Videos

Map: Print and show the following map of how the current pandemic is spreading. Map found on WHO.int Click the image below to save the PDF map and print it.

Pandemic Flu Starter Kit:

Have these items on display or make the kits and have them for sale. To make the kits, you’ll need to price out these items from your local super stores or dollar stores then have a sign up sheet going around which people can sign up to purchase the kits from you. Everyone can come and listen to the mini class and at the end everyone can put the kits together. Kits could include the following items…

• Alcohol-based hand cleaners
• Face mask/respirator (N95 or better)
• Bar of Soap in Zip Lock Bag
• Tissues
• Acetaminophen (Tylenol) or Ibuprofen (Advil)
• Pepto Bismol (or generic brand because diarrhea is one of the symptoms)
• Vitamins, such as Zinc lozenges or Vitamin C
• Latex Free Gloves
• Disinfectant wipes
• Cough syrup containing Dextromethorphan
• Thermometer
• Gallon of Water
• Fluids with electrolytes, like Gatorade and Pedialyte.
• …more. Obviously you could include more than these items. But these are just suggestions which we have come up with after looking over different information.

Handout:
The following document is just 2 pages and can be printed double sided and folded in thirds. Or click here for more handouts.

Treats or Refreshments: A few people could sign up to bring desserts which start with the letters F L or U, cookies in the shape of those letters. Or even have people sign up to bring desserts made from food storage items.

Hope this works for you. Please comment if you have any suggestions or ideas on how to make this better or how you did your activity. We’d love to know how it went.

So this month’s Stake focus topic is Pandemic Flu. We’ve found and created several documents which will help in getting yourselves and your wards prepared. As we all should now know, “On June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) signaled that a global pandemic of novel influenza A (H1N1) was underway by raising the worldwide pandemic alert level to Phase 6.” Which means we NEED to be more prepared because it can and probably will get worse. If it doesn’t get worse and they are able to mass produce a an effective vaccine, then good for all of us who are prepared and it’ll be sad for those of us who are not. (I include myself in the “those who are not” but we are working on it.)

Remember, the main thing we need to do is make sure we have a good supply of food storage, if not for a year, then for 6 months, if not for 6 months then 3 months and just gradually increase your supply. Just start today if you don’t have a stock of food.

Download PDF Documents:

The PDF documents below can be distributed within your wards (even wards outside of the Pleasant Grove, UT Stake) Click on the image of the document you’d like to download and save the PDF onto your computer.

Pandemic Flu Basics (2 pages) - Q&A about the pandemic flu. Created by PGWard.org

Pandemic Flu Comic Book (short 1 pg) or (12 pgs) - great to inform the youth. - Document found on PandemicFlu.Utah.gov

Pandemic H1N1 Map - Document found on WHO.int

Sesame Street Staying Healthy (2 pages) - great for primary to pass out to the parents. - Document found on SesameStreet.org/Parents

Stop Infection - Document found on KingCounty.gov

Plan Now & Stay Well (2 pages) - Document found on KingCounty.gov

Home Care - caring for someone infected by the flu. - Document found on KingCounty.gov

How to Hand Wash - display in your ward buildings in the bathrooms. - Document found on WHO.int

How to Hand Rub & Hand Wash - display in your ward buildings in the bathrooms. Document found on WHO.int

Family Information Health Sheet (2 pages) - Document found on CDC.gov.

What’s all the hype about the Swine Flu? You can get a slue of info on Wikipedia about the Swine Flu.

I’m just going to touch on a few points, but you’re always the judge. Judge what’s best for your family and always practice good hygiene and cleanliness.

Swine influenza (also swine flu) refers to influenza caused by any strain of the influenza virus endemic in pigs (swine). Strains endemic in swine are called swine influenza virus (SIV).

In humans, the symptoms of swine flu are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general, namely chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort. The strain responsible for the 2009 swine flu outbreak in most cases causes only mild symptoms and the infected person makes a full recovery without requiring medical attention and without the use of antiviral medicines.^[2]

Because the potential for a swine flu pandemic is now present, it is helpful to compare the current epidemic with those of earlier periods. The chart below gives figures for either worldwide or the U.S., depending on what figures were available.

It is believed to be spread between humans through coughing or sneezing of infected people and touching something with the virus on it and then touching their own nose or mouth.^[29] Swine flu cannot be spread by pork products, since the virus is not transmitted through food.^[29] The swine flu in humans is most contagious during the first five days of the illness although some people, most commonly children, can remain contagious for up to ten days. Diagnosis can be made by sending a specimen, collected during the first five days, to the CDC for analysis.^[30]

How to keep myself healthy?

1. If you have what you think are symptoms of flu, call your doctor - DON’T just go see him/her - if you do you might contaminate others on the way.
2. If you are found to be sick, stay HOME - do NOT go to work or school, etc and contaminate others.
3. When you cough or sneeze, cover your nose and mouth so the germs do not go out into the air.  This is just common sense and common courtesy that we should do anyway but now its more important.* Possibly carry a handkerchief if you’re sneezing a lot.
4. Wash your hands frequently - especially after touching things (keyboards, phones, doorknobs, etc) - use hot water and soap for 20 seconds or more or hand sanitizers such as Prell or equivalent.
5. Keep your bare hands away from your eyes, nose, mouth.
6. Eat nutritious food, lots of liquids [no alcohol....but you already knew that -- LOL], get good sleep, reduce stress as much as you can [right] and be physically active.
7. If you wear a mask be sure it is form fitted around your nose and mouth.
8. If you wear gloves, be sure they are non-latex**

* I have heard about sneezing into one’s arm pit*** - in my opinion, this is stupid unless one is exceptionally careful how it is done.  Two weeks ago at church a person was sitting on the bench in front of us and did that. However she missed her armpit and blew her germs directly into the faces of my wife and me! [thanks Jim for the info, sorry you were sneezed on.]

**After years and years of using latex gloves most medical institutions have switched to non-latex for the safety factor. See you might be called upon to work on someone that is Latex sensitive and cause more harm than good, even if you don’t have a latex allergy. Nitrile type gloves have the best strength/stretch/protection of the current crop of gloves.

***You are not suppose to sneeze in your arm pit it is supposed to be in your elbow. The reason for that is that covering your mouth with your hand then being the “good” brother or sister and shaking hands with everyone spreads the disease rapidly. having a pocket alcohol based hand cleaner and washing with that (you don’t have to rinse) is a safe albeit paranoid way of making sure that you won’t get the bug from shaking hands. Best way is if YOU don’t feel good stay home from Church, or anywhere else until you feel better.

IF it becomes a major problem the Reserve Medical Corps would be the people who would distribute any vaccinations / flu shots. Joining their organization could put you on the top of the list of people to get the medicine. Just a thought! Maybe you should join?

Special thanks to Terry and Cory for the info provided above.

Just wanted to let you all know that the November newsletter is now available to view or download online.

We’ve included 7 tips on how to stay healthy during a Pandemic and how to stay healthy to avoid the Flu. These come in handy especially now before the Winter starts.

Click here to view a list of all Newsletters

Submitted by: Chris & Jessica Gainer

In order to properly “shelter-in-place” find a place that you can shut yourself in and stay put. (Hopefully the place you shelter in is really close or where you already are.) This would be necessary to do when something catastrophic happens and it is no longer safe to stay outside. Examples of this could be a natural disaster, hazardous materials release, highly volatile airborne pathogens, zombie incursion, etc. Really, this is the safest thing to do in most cases unless you are told by authorities to leave. (Remember when your mom told you “If you get lost, stay put.” Same idea-you’re easier to locate and things usually go better if you’re not out wandering with the undead or highly radioactive materials. All jesting aside, when you shelter in place properly, you’ll end up being a lot safer until you know for sure what’s going on. A lot of panicking people=crowded freeways, mass hysteria, and bad stuff happening outside. Stay put, stay calm, and stay safe.

When told to shelter in place (you’ll normally hear this on the radio or TV, one of those “this is not a test, this is an actually emergency, this is not a test” broadcasts), you should:

1. Close and lock windows and doors to the outside.
2. Turn off anything that circulates air or vents to the outside (heater, AC, fans, fireplace etc.) also tape up little cracks and openings to the outside with tape and put damp towels on door bottoms.
3. If accessible, get your 72 hour kit.
4. Go to an above ground interior room with no windows.
5. Don’t panic and don’t call 911 unless there is an immediate threat to life. For example, if someone has lost an appendage it would be OK to call; on the other hand if they’ve got a paper cut or are just scared, don’t call.
6. Keep the radio on and wait for further instructions.

For more information, see diagram A and here are some really good websites I found.

http://www.cityofvancouver.us/preparedness.asp?itemID=23927 (there’s a video on this one, too-it’s free, you just have to navigate through a couple pages to get there)
http://www.redcross.org/services/disaster/0,1082,0_589_,00.html
http://www.nicsinfo.org/SIP%20Center.htm

Brigham Young University—Idaho offers an online training video for the Prevention of Avian Flu.

Remember no one thought Aids would be passed on from animals to humans, but it was and so can the Avian flu so prepare yourself and your family. This video is very informative.

The following fact sheets provide information on how individuals, families, and health care workers can help prepare for a possible flu pandemic: (these files are all PDF files and are straight from the providentliving.org site.)

• Home and Family Preparedness
• Personal Hygiene
• Personal Protective Equipment
• Infectious Disease Cleanup
• Sheltering In Place
• Social Distancing
• Workplace Preparedness
• Health Care Worker Preparedness

Review the information the Church has released in order to prepare and protect yourself and your family.