Sonoma, Bay Area officials spend Sunday coordinating response to swine flu

<p>Sonoma County public health officials will open a command center Monday as a headquarters for swine flu epidemic operations.</p><p>Officials also will launch an effort to better inform the county’s Spanish speaking communities about the flu, said Dr. Mark Netherda, the county’s deputy health officer.</p><p>“We’re going to hit the ground running,” Netherda said Sunday. “One of the things we’ll be doing is getting our speaking points out to all the population we can reach, especially those at increased risk” such as people more likely to travel to Mexico or have visitors from Mexico.</p><p>Efforts to combat the swine flu epidemic ratchetted up Sunday as public health officials in Sonoma County and throughout the state worked to get the latest information and expand plans to coordinate prevention efforts.</p><p>Public health officers were meeting throughout the day Sunday and were participating in two conference calls with other state and Bay Area health officials, said Netherda.</p><p>Monday morning health officials said they plan to open a command center with operations full functional by noon, to further coordinate local efforts.</p><p>The swine flu has been deadly in Mexico, where 81 people have died and more than 1,300 are believed to have been infected.</p><p>There have been 20 cases in the United States, including seven confirmed in California, health officials said Sunday. No cases have been reported in Northern California. The California cases have all been in Imperial and San Diego counties, Netherda said.</p><p>None of the known cases in the U.S. have been fatal. </p><p>This particular flu strain hasn’t been seen in people and international health officials have said the virus had “pandemic potential" and officials have declared it a public emergency.</p><p>Netherda on Saturday participated in a mass conference call meeting with more than 80 public health officials from around California to share information and coordinate planning.</p><p>Sunday a second conference call was completed with state and local officials, as well as a call focused on coordinating Bay Area efforts.</p><p>“That conference call is for health officials to all know what each other are doing,” Netherda said. “We can make concerted, collected decisions about the kind of information we’re releasing and how we’re releasing it and learn from each other.”</p><p>Napa County officials already have launched a plan to provide information to Spanish speaking communities there. They were expected to pass on their plan during the second conference call, Netherda said. </p><p>Sonoma County’s public health Website includes information in Spanish, but more needs to be done, Netherda said. </p><p>He expected Sonoma County would be mirroring Napa’s efforts at reaching Spanish speakers.</p><p>“We want them to get the same information everybody else is getting,” Netherda said. “One of our top priorities is to work toward that goal.”</p><p>Netherda had been due to be on a plane Sunday bound for the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. But he cancelled the trip to help lead efforts here involving the virus.</p><p>The CDC is at the heart of U.S. efforts to battle the epidemic and Netherda said it would have been interesting and informative to have been there while this was unfolding.</p><p>He would have been taking classes teaching health officers how to use academic logic while investigating outbreaks. </p><p>“It’s a course designed to do exactly what we’re doing,” he said.</p>