Kansans should get ready for a bird flu pandemic, two state health officials say.

“We believe that pandemic flu is likely to occur,” said Mindee Reece, director of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s Center for Public Health Preparedness.

“The estimate we are using in Kansas is that a flu pandemic might cause up to 2,500 deaths in our state,” Reece wrote during an online chat Wednesday on the Journal-World’s Web site.

Reece responded to about a dozen readers’ questions in consultation with Dick Morrissey, deputy director for the KDHE Division of Health.

The chat was a follow-up to an ABC-TV movie that aired Tuesday, “Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America.”

Reece said parts of the movie were realistic, but other parts were overly dramatic and presented a worst-case scenario.

She said there were two important messages from the movie: Planning is needed at all levels, and individuals need to practice good hygiene, such as regularly washing their hands.

“We recommend that preparing for two weeks is the practical minimum that all Kansans should consider for stockpiling of water, food and medications,” Reece said.

To see the full transcript of the chat, see video interviews with Reece and Morrissey, see the KTKA-TV report on bird flu in Kansas. To make comments, go to http://www2.ljworld.com/news/chats/newsmakers/.