Be afraid...

Health Secretary Michael O. Leavitt discusses preparedness for the possibility of an avian flu pandemic striking in the United States. (Sun photo by Jerry Jackson) Feb 24, 2006

In "States must lead if pandemic hits country, U.S. official says," the Baltimore Sun reports on Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Levitt's comments at a State of Maryland conference on pandemic flu. From the article:

...states must be self-sufficient in flu preparedness."Any community that fails to prepare with the expectation that the federal government will come to the rescue is tragically wrong," Leavitt said during a conference at the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies in Linthicum. He also called on families to consider how they will provide for themselves. "It's important for people to have some water, a storage of food," he said. Families also should consider storing enough prescription drugs to last more than a week, while parents think about who would care for their children if schools were closed and they must report to work.

Index Keywords: disaster-planning