Join the Public Health Drill on June 26th at STMA High School

Volunteers Needed for Operation Ground Hog Day

It’s the concert event of the season in St. Paul, Minnesota. You and your friends have been waiting for this show for weeks and it is just as you had hoped: loud, raucous, and incredibly fun. 12 hours later, however, all four of you wake up coughing, with headaches and high temperatures. You go to the hospital, where an X-ray and lab results confirm the unimaginable – you’ve been intentionally exposed to a deadly disease. While a state epidemiologist interviews your family members, Public Health Departments across the Metro must “stand up” their public Points of Dispensing (PODs). Medical countermeasures have never been needed so urgently; or for so many.

This is the scenario for June’s full-scale Cities Readiness Initiative (CRI) Full-Scale Exercise: a learning opportunity for local public health, the Minnesota Department of Health, and partners across the metro CRI area. Between June 23 and June 26, public health staff will open PODs and dispense “medicine” to volunteers within 12 hours of notification. It’s a significant challenge, but one that we’re are ready for. Wright County Public has been planning for over a year and is looking forward to the opportunity to test a new site with MDH’s recently revised anthrax protocol. “The POD site we are testing is one of the newest schools in the county,” notes Jon Young, Exercise Coordinator. “It’s also a great opportunity for us to engage our Medical Reserve Corps volunteers and work collaboratively with other counties.”

Over 100 public health staff from 6+ counties will be working at the Wright County site with people from Wright, Sherburne, Hennepin, Isanti, Chisago and Mille Lacs counties participating. During a two hour period, the actor/victims will present as a person who has been exposed to anthrax and needs preventive antibiotics. Volunteers will be given cards saying what their health status is and go through the clinic multiple times portraying different types of people by age and health status. The drill will give staff the opportunity to determine what type of antibiotic is appropriate depending on the health condition a person has, if they are adult or child, if they have allergies, etc. The entire Public Health Division will be involved in the drill along with others from HHS acting as Command Staff, greeters, registration, ushers, screeners, triage, supply staff, and security. Additional staff will provide direction from the Wright County Emergency Operations Center.

People of all ages are still needed as volunteers for the June 26th drill. Wright County’s volunteer signup for client actors for Operation Groundhog Day is on the Public Health website - http://www.co.wright.mn.us/298/Public-Health or call Terri at 763-682-7516.