CARROLL COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT

H1N1 (SWINE FLU) UPDATE

7 OCTOBER 2009

GLOBAL: The World Health Organization reports, as of 2 October 2009, at least 343,298 cases of laboratory confirmed H1N1 virus with at least 4108 worldwide deaths.

WHO’s Global Pandemic Phase remains at SIX (the highest). Measures spread, not severity

NATIONAL: H1N1 influenza activity continues to increase. The CDC reports that since 30 August (the beginning of the 2009-2010 flu season) through 19 September, 936 people nationwide have died from influenza and pneumonia-associated illness and 10,082 have been hospitalized.

There continues to be no evidence that the H1N1 virus has mutated to cause any more serious morbidity and mortality than it has since April.

MARYLAND: The State has experienced its ninth death associated with H1N1 (Swine) flu. This case involved a youth from the Baltimore metro area with no apparent underlying medical conditions.

Influenza activity in the State remains WIDESPREAD (the highest rating). Maryland shares this rating with 26 other states, up one more state than last week.

CARROLL COUNTY: The last seasonal mass influenza clinic sponsored by the Carroll County Health Department (CCHD) will take place at the Senior Expo at the Carroll County Agricultural Center on Wednesday 14 October from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.

CCHD has now received 180 completed applications from nurses seeking temporary employment with CCHD to serve as mass vaccinators.

OTHER IMPORTANT NOTES:

A message to the provider community in Carroll County

There seems to be some confusion between the material sent to your office from the CCHD and from the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH). What follows is an attempt to clarify:

On 10 August 2009, the CCHD sent you a letter inviting you to register with us to receive information from CCHD regarding developing H1N1 issues. By returning (mostly by fax) the form attached to that letter, CCHD entered your email address or fax number into our address groups. By returning that form to us, you are now receiving this periodic Update and other material CCHD believes you would be interested in. This has nothing to do with any communication or request from DHMH.

On or about 14 August 2009, DHMH posted a web address (www.dhmh.state.md.us) for any provider to PREREGISTER to receive H1N1 vaccine. This collected certain information from you to allow DHMH to send you a Provider Agreement (see below). Preregistration by itself DOES NOT establish the vaccine receipt process for you. The Carroll County providers appearing on CCHD’s last couple of Updates have preregistered. A provider MUST preregister to move on to the next step – receipt of a Provider Agreement and Vaccine Order Form.

On or about 29 September 2009, DHMH sent a message to all PREREGISTERED providers a web address to electronically accept the terms and conditions of the approved Provider Agreement and to place an initial order for H1N1 vaccine with DHMH. That website is: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=g5n2RqkSJIXrM1SfmWdFMw_3d_3d. Your practice MUST have an email address to actually accept the terms and conditions in the Provider Agreement and to place an order for vaccine. On 29 September CCHD sent (mostly by fax) a courtesy hard copy of the entire Provider Agreement for you to inspect prior to completing the on-line version, which DOES NOT allow you to view the entire document when you start. The Provider Agreement MUST be submitted to DHMH electronically.

Vaccine Ordering and Distribution: The DHMH list of PREREGISTERED providers has not been updated since 21 September 2009.

Provider Agreement: Please call 410-876-4972 if you would like to inspect a fax copy of the Provider Agreement. The actual Provider Agreement must be sent to DHMH electronically.