This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
It's not a matter of if, but when, a pandemic influenza outbreak will strike, Utah health officials believe, and they are getting ready for it.
With the threat of the H5N1 avian flu swapping genetic material with another virus - allowing it to become highly contagious - a task force voted Wednesday to advise Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. to spend $3.6 million in general funds on anti-viral medications.
The constantly evolving virus has been confirmed in birds in 55 countries, according to a Nov. 13 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report. A year ago, it was reported in 16.
Even more troubling, 256 people in 10 countries have been infected, and of those, 159 - or 59 percent - have died, the report said.
"It has acted in a way that has made everyone afraid it will cause a pandemic, so it has elevated our concern," said Utah state epidemiologist Robert Rolfs.
The Governor's Task Force for Pandemic Influenza Preparedness, which is charged with updating the state's decade-old pandemic influenza plan, wants Utah to purchase anti-viral medications in excess of those provided as part of the national stockpile.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is holding about 350,000 multi-day doses of anti-viral medication for Utah, which is enough to treat 13.6 percent of the state's population.
With the purchase of an additional 247,000 such doses, however, another 9.6 percent of the population could be served.
"This is a new challenge," said David Sundwall, executive director of the Utah Department of Health. "We have some surplus this year, and I hope they'll understand it's an investment in the public health to add money to the budget to fund our purchase of anti-virals."
Under the state's plan, the task force is also recommending that local jurisdictions, hospitals and other entities be allowed to purchase anti-virals in addition to what the state buys.
More immediately, the task force is asking Huntsman to send a letter of intent to the CDC by its Dec. 29 deadline to hold all 597,000 doses.
Failing to do so means the state would lose the option of getting more anti-viral medication than the feds have allotted for it.
Sundwall stressed that the anti-virals now on the market - Tamiflu and Relenza - are not a cure, but rather a way of changing the way the virus works in the body.
The drugs "limit [the virus'] effect, but they don't necessarily kill it," he said.
Tamiflu, which comes in the form of pills, and Relenza, which is inhaled, have a five-year shelf life, said Rolfs.
The expiration dates on the anti-virals could be extended, however, if tests to gauge the potency of the drugs are approved on the state level.
The task force will recommend to Huntsman that 60 percent of the anti-virals be distributed to health districts based on population and 20 percent according to the number of hospital beds.
The state would hold onto the last 20 percent to be distributed according to need, and to those groups, such as health care workers, who are identified as high priority.
The task force reconvenes Jan. 4.