Health officials said Tuesday that should a flu pandemic strike Douglas County or Kansas, plans are in place and they are prepared.

“We certainly are urging Kansans to be vigilant in getting flu shots and taking the normal precautions and doing their best to stay healthy,” said Sharon Watson, spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. “We want people to take the flu seriously and take actions to prevent it and the spread of it.”

President Bush expressed concerns Tuesday that the United States could experience something similar to the 1918 flu pandemic that killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide. He relayed his worries while responding to questions about the avian flu, also known as bird flu.

Local and state health leaders had not heard Bush’s statements Tuesday afternoon and couldn’t comment.

Avian flu is very contagious among birds. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bird flu viruses don’t usually infect humans, but several cases have occurred since 1997.

KDHE will be releasing a 50-page document Monday outlining the state’s response plan for pandemic flu. Having the plan in place was a priority this year, Watson said.

The state’s plan has a section that focuses on prevention, informing people to wash their hands, get plenty of rest, eat well and exercise, Watson said.

The Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department and area health groups, such as Lawrence Memorial Hospital, have been working on a public emergency health plan for a couple of years, said Kim Ens, disease control program coordinator the health department.

That plan can generally be applied to any illness, including avian flu, Ens said.

Once a patient is identified as having a particular illness, such as avian flu, local health workers begin investigating where the patient has been to determine how the person became infected. Ens said physicians and the public would be notified of needed precautions if widespread illness broke out.

She said patients would be told to stay home or put in the care of the hospital, depending how severe or contagious the illness was.

• 6News video: Priority placed on planning for possible epidemic
• On the street: Do you think the avian flu poses a real threat to the U.S.?
• Response outlined in event of bird flu
• State to release plan on pandemic next week
• U.N. health agency revises prediction on flu pandemic (10-01-05)
• Farm quarantined in search for bird flu (08-21-05)
• U.S. ready to order millions of doses of avian flu vaccine (8-08-05)
• Russia: Avian flu will spread into Europe (8-05-05)