Tinker practices disease containment Published Aug. 28, 2014 By Kimberly Woodruff Tinker Public Affairs TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- With information about serious diseases predominately in the news, it is natural for everyone to wonder exactly how Tinker Air Force Base would handle a disease outbreak. That's precisely what the 72nd Medical Group planned for in the recent disease containment exercise, an annual requirement for them. The exercise virus was H1N1 Influenza, and the Point of Distribution exercise was to vaccinate top tier individuals at Tinker. "Top tier would be first responders such as the fire department, health care workers, security forces, and then high risk individuals who might be prone to the effects of the virus," said Col. Kirk Stetson, 72nd MDG. Maj. Joshua Hartman, the Public Health Emergency officer with the 72nd MDG, pointed out that this particular exercise was very focused on a single disease -- H1N1 Influenza. The Disease Containment Plan is written to account for any type of public health emergency -- including any disease, mass chemical exposure, natural disaster, etc. "The Point of Distribution specifically is a process to quickly get medical treatment out to the public. In this exercise, the treatment was vaccinations. However, this could have been antibiotics for anthrax exposure, iodine tablets for a radiation exposure, etc.," said Major Hartman. The major went on to say for a disease like Ebola where there is no specific medications or vaccines to treat the disease, "we would activate the isolation and quarantine portions of the DCP." The scenario for this exercise was that for the past two weeks there have been cases reported in Oklahoma City of the H1N1 virus, and a case had just been confirmed on Tinker. According to Major Hartman, the installation commander formally declares a public health emergency which triggers activation of the Disease Containment Plan. This also allows access to broader federal resources including the Strategic National Stockpile of vaccinations. There are multiple reasons for an installation commander to declare a public health emergency. In this exercise, the fact that the state declared an emergency necessitated Tinker following suit. A representative from the County Health Department is required to be at the point of distribution. Elizabeth Billingsley, the dispensing coordinator with the Oklahoma County Health Department, took part in the Tinker exercise. "My job is to observe, but also to advise where Tinker can go to pick up vaccinations needed for the base," she said. During an actual outbreak, people would be brought in to the Gerrity gymnasium or some other large area to be screened and some would receive medications. Those individuals who are found to already be infected would be sent home as a vaccine would not help them at this point, according to Major Hartman. Everyone is brought in and given briefings on how to keep from spreading germs such as washing hands, coughing into the elbow and so on. After the briefings, the vaccine is administered. "We have to keep the mission going -- keep the healthy people healthy," said Col. Jianzhong Zhang, chief of Aerospace Medicine with the 72nd Medical Group. "We mitigate responsibility and support treatment." Major Hartman said the group did very well in this exercise. He also reminds everyone that flu season is coming, so be sure to get a flu shot and not to wait for an outbreak. Flu shots are expected to be available at Tinker in September.