(PUBLIC HEALTH) — The rapid response avian and pandemic influenza workshop, sponsored by the Joint Task Force-Homeland Defense Pandemic Influenza Mobile Training Team is being held at the Pacific Islands Club on Saipan.
The aim of this three-day workshop is to further assess capabilities and limitations of the CNMI’s pandemic flu plan and identify ways to strengthen the plan.
It also aims to bring various agencies together to discuss the roles each is to play in mitigating the pandemic flu problem if it arises.
The team conducts training on pandemic preparedness and response using a scenario-driven workshop that is a mixture of didactic and group problem-solving.
The team is made up of experts stationed in Hawaii.
Col. Michael Brumage, lead trainer and facilitator, stated that “the program is based on the WHO/CDC pandemic containment curriculum, but is modified to be country specific and less medical-centric and will include essential services, critical infrastructure, and logistics as pandemic influenza will be an operational problem that affects all essential services and is not purely a medical issue.”
The team plans to return to the CNMI within a year in order to conduct an exercise related to the local pandemic flu plan.
Training participants included representatives from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the Department of Public Health including Rota Health Center and Rota Bureau of Environmental Health, the Emergency Management Office, the Public School System, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, the Saipan Mayor’s Office, the American Red Cross, the Marianas Visitors Authority, Mobil Marianas, the Office of Homeland Security, the Department of Public Safety and Northern Marianas College.