VALLEY — Public health agencies in the San Luis Valley are looking for volunteers to help test their emergency plans at two Point of Dispensing (POD) sites that will be open to the public. Door prizes will include emergency preparedness items. The first POD will be open to the public from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Friday, June 16th at the Alamosa County Public Health Department at 8900 Independence Way in Alamosa. A second POD will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 17th at Ski Hi Park in Monte Vista. 

Preparing for public health emergencies is an important part of national security. The Department of Homeland Security’s 2015 Strategic National Risk Assessment noted that a virulent strain of pandemic influenza could kill hundreds of thousands of Americans, affect millions more, and result in economic loss. Other human and animal infectious diseases, including those undiscovered, may also present significant risks. The Spanish flu killed about half a million Americans in the early 1900’s. More recently, Ebola and Zika have brought public health emergency response efforts into the news.

“We need to test our ability, in a mock setting, to dispense medications to our community in a very short period of time to protect the public from large-scale exposure to disease. Our target is about 300 people per hour. Public participation will be crucial to the success of the exercise,” said Linda Smith, public health’s Regional Emergency Preparedness and Response Program Coordinator.

Although actual medications will not be used, public health personnel will go through the same procedures and protocols that they would use to dispense medications in a real disaster. The exercise will also test communication and resource coordination with other response agencies.

The local PODs are part of a three-day statewide Public Health Emergency Dispensing exercise that has been in the planning since last year. In addition to the PODs, some local health care facilities will be practicing their own internal emergency procedures as part of the larger statewide exercise. For more information go to slvemergency.org or call 719-587-5199.