Local health agencies are splitting about $1.6-Million to prepare for the inevitable. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has given Missouri’s State Health Department about $1.9-Million – most of which is going to local health departments to plan for the next influenza pandemic. This is only the first phase of the planning money. States will get another $250-million, total, before the end of Summer. The Department hopes to use much of Missouri’s share of that money to implement the things the departments plan. The public attention is on the development of the bird flu. The Department says health officials think that might be the source of the next pandemic, but there are so many other strains of the influenza virus that are mutating and creating new kinds of virus each year. And, health officials have to be ready to deal with whatever strain becomes the threat – eventually.
