| | How can Faith-Based and Community-Based Organizations (FBCOs) help to keep people healthy during an influenza pandemic?
Category: Planing and Response Questions
Answer:FBCOs and other community organizations can perform an important role by helping to maintain the health of members. Medical providers primarily treat influenza by treating the symptoms and by treating other infections that may affect someone who is sick with influenza. Those with other medical conditions, such as heart disease or diabetes, may also require additional medical care. Medical providers alone, however, cannot perform all the health care-related tasks associated with an influenza pandemic. To take an active role in maintaining the health of members, consider the following options: - Help neighbors, staff, volunteers, and members or clients to keep their own current lists of medical conditions and medications.
- Encourage members to check their supplies of regular prescription and over-the-counter drugs periodically to ensure an adequate supply during an emergency.
- Work with state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments to help ensure that vaccines, antiviral medicines, and other medical treatments are distributed efficiently and fairly when they become available. When started within 48 hours after the onset of influenza symptoms, antiviral drugs may help people get well more quickly and may keep others from getting pandemic influenza. During an influenza pandemic, laboratories at CDC and elsewhere will test pandemic influenza virus strains to determine which antivirals may be most effective against the circulating strains of the pandemic virus.
- Contribute to good communication and distribution channels which are important in making sure that medications get to the people in the communities that need them.
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Last Updated: 11/06/2007
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