Naval Medical Center Portsmouth Participates in PANFLUEX

By Deborah R. Kallgren

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (NNS) -- Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (NMCP) and its branch clinics immunized nearly 4,000 personnel during the Chief of Naval Operations' pandemic flu exercise (PANFLUEX) Sept. 14-15.

Eighty-nine percent of NMCPs active duty staff, 67 percent of its General Service civilians, and 46 percent of its contractors were immunized against the flu.

NMCP is one of two medical treatment facilities to test the Navy's ability to surge in the event of a real pandemic. Naval Hospital Bremerton, Wash., also participated in the exercise.

When the influenza vaccine arrived at NMCP, the medical center's mobile vaccination teams had 48 to quickly respond and get the designated active duty and mission-essential civilians immunized.

Capt. Matthew Pommer, deputy commander, noted that the medical center had 124 staff deployed and 235 others on leave or temporary additional duty on the exercise days. Additionally, multiple staff members presented with possible medical contraindications and were unable to receive a flu vaccine.

"Given the variables, ongoing commitments, chiefs' initiation, E-4 exams and multiple hurdles, things went very well," Pommer said.

There are four phases of NMCPs surge capability. The first was at the medical center. Four teams of 20 fanned out to immunize personnel at the main hospital and its nine branch clinics. The remaining three phases are being conducted as vaccine is received.

"We wanted to stress the system and see how well and how fast we can get a large volume of our staff vaccinated," said Capt. Dexter Hardy, Public Health Services director.

Teams began administering flu injections and the nasal FluMist vaccine Sept. 14 at 7 a.m. They worked continuously through that night to immunize the overnight staff and into the next day. They completed PANFLUEX Sept. 15 at 11 p.m.

The teams got off to a good start the first day.

"Over a 16-hour period, we vaccinated over 70 percent of our active duty staff," Hardy added.

CherylAnn Kraft, NMCP immunizations manager, said much of the PANFLUEXs success was due to the hard work of the immunization teams.

"We have increased our efficiency and reduced vaccination wait times by 50 percent in the pandemic model, getting patients through in 3 and a half minutes," said Kraft. "We are excited to share our lessons learned with our Navy family."

NMCP expects to administer about 130,000 flu shots this year, 60,000 of which will be administered in the pandemic surge exercise. The remaining allocation of flu shots is for TRICARE-eligible dependents and family members; flu shots for those individuals will be available soon.

Each year, the flu vaccine is updated to protect against the three flu strains that research indicates will cause the most illness during the flu season. This year's vaccine contains three new flu virus strains.

The 2010-11 influenza vaccine protects individuals from getting sick from these three viruses, and it can make symptoms milder if the person contracts a related, but different influenza virus strain.

Influenza has the potential to significantly impact Navy force readiness and missions. In the U.S., influenza results in more than 25 million reported cases, more than 150,000 hospitalizations due to serious complications, and more than 30,000 deaths annually.