It is a big question: What do you do with 1,000 sick Douglas County residents infected with a highly contagious flu strain?

Members of the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department told county commissioners Monday that they’re working on an answer because the scene could become reality if the avian flu strikes the United States.

“We don’t want to scare people, but we do want people to know how serious this could be,” said Kim Ens, disease control program coordinator for the health department.

Ens said the department is participating in planning exercises with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and are in discussions with leaders at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

“My inclination is we’re going to get hit,” said County Commission Chairman Charles Jones. “The question I have is whether we have the capacity to treat the people in our community.”

Ens said although avian flu – also known as bird flu – has been in the news only recently, the department has been training for a worldwide outbreak for years. The department has operated mass flu vaccination events each of the last three years in preparation for a time when thousands may have to be vaccinated.

Kay Kent, director of the health department, said Free State High School, Allen Fieldhouse and the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds had been successfully tested as mass vaccination sites. She also said the department had been successful in administering 8,000 flu vaccinations in a year.

The community, though, likely will have to cope without an avian flu vaccine for several months after an outbreak because a vaccine can’t be developed until world health leaders see the specific strain of flu affecting people. Once the strain is determined, it is estimated to take six to eight months to develop a vaccine.

Ens said the first doses of vaccine likely would go to health care workers, government officials who would be involved in making decisions for the community, police officers and other professionals who could help care for others.

“The people who are needed to help keep our infrastructure going are probably going to be a priority,” Ens said.

The flu, thus far, has been detected only in humans in a few Asian countries. The flu is common among poultry and birds in that region of the world but has shown signs of spreading to humans. Ens said health care professionals worry that the virus will mutate and begin spreading from human to human. That would be particularly problematic because it would be an entirely new virus that the human body has built up no defense against.

Ens said part of the health department’s response to prevent the spread of the viruses likely would include canceling many public events and asking people who are sick to voluntarily quarantine themselves. Ens said mandatory quarantines also could not be ruled out.

Ens said people could protect themselves by receiving a pneumonia vaccination. She said many people who die from the flu actually die from complications such a pneumonia. Anyone age 65 or older is eligible for the pneumonia shot, which is available at the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, 200 Maine. People with weakened immune systems also are eligible.

About 35,000 people per year in the United States die of traditional strains of the flu. It is not known what the fatality rate for avian flu would be in the United States, Ens said.