Disaster drill: Q-C battles mock plaque

By Deirdre Cox Baker | Friday, May 02, 2008

Senior citizen Kay York stepped out of reality for a few minutes Thursday, pretending she was a 20-year-old mother with a baby in her arms and an active toddler by her side, rushing to get antibiotics and fight “the plague.”

York, actually a member of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, was one of more than 100 mock patients who took part in a full-scale disaster simulation staged by the Rock Island County Health Department.

The event was designed to promote collaboration between the health department and community partners in case of an infectious disease outbreak, and participants filled one side of Wharton Field House in Moline.

It was the third time for York to participate in a disaster drill. “How else would we know what to do if something like this happened?” she said. “We have to have a way to work out the kinks.”

Health officials agreed that the exercise was helpful, especially to first-time and new medical workers who have never worked with large numbers of patients.

In fact, more than 80 members of the health department and the newly formed Medical Reserve Corps worked to triage the “patients,” take medical histories and dispense medicine — actually plain and peanut M&M candies.

Long lines formed, in some cases, to fill out required health forms and pick up the “pills.”

“We need to learn now what works and what doesn’t, and to hopefully make improvements,” said Theresa Foes, a health department spokesperson.

While the Quad-City metropolitan area is not likely to be hit by a plague, Foes said it is possible that an influenza virus could come along that would be new and harmful to the population. “A similar process we do here for the ‘plague’ is what we’d do for the flu,” she added.

York, the retiree who acted the part of a harried young mother, explained that, in the scenario, she wanted antibiotics because a family member, a bicyclist, was hospitalized with “the plague.”

Kitty Black, of Colona, Ill., is also part of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program. She reached the site of the mock disaster 30 minutes early and did not experience too many long lines. “I think this is a good idea,” she said. “You never know what will happen next.”

Deirdre Cox Baker can be contacted at (563) 383-2492 or dbaker@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.