8A - Monday, April 7, 2014 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 'Zombies' invade local community center School of Public Health students hold emergency response simulation By IAN DILLINGHAM Daily News Editor Zombies invaded Ann Arbor Saturday, but citizens need not worry. A joint team from the Uni- versity's School of Public Health and Washtenaw County Public Health contained the incident and effectively treated all sub- jects who had been exposed to the Toxoplasma zombie parasite. In reality, Saturday's disas- ter preparedness exercise at the Washtenaw County Learn- ing Resource Center served an important role in preparing community health officials for a potential emergency. Though the simulation used "zombies" - volunteers from the commu- nity who were provided makeup prior to the event - the exercise was intended to test the ability of local public health agencies to respond to a wide array of possi- ble scenarios in the community, such as a bioterrorism attack, flu outbreak or natural disaster. In the years since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, govern- ment agencies, such as the Cen- ters for Disease Control, have invested heavily in community preparedness programs such as the "zombie invasion." While zombies do not present a serious threat to communities, the CDC launched the national program to help local agencies better pre- pare for any disaster.. "If you are generally well equipped to deal with a zombie apocalypse you will be prepared for a hurricane, pandemic, earth- quake, or terrorist attack," wrote Ali Kahn, director of the CDC's Office of Public Health Pre- paredness and Response. The event, organized through the School of Public Health, serves the dual purpose of pre- paring public response measures and teaching students about dealing with outbreaks or other disasters. In particular, the sim- ulation applies principles taught in the graduate course "Applied Epidemiology," allowing stu- dents to see in action the proce- dures they study over the course of a semester. Associate Epidemiology Prof. Eden Wells, director of the preventative medicine resi- dency, called this year's event a "functional exercise." While she implemented a similar event last year to help her class bet- ter understand the material, this year's event had the added element of involving local pub- lic health agencies, giving the students a chance to partake in a more realistic and beneficial exercise. "These events are really fun to engage with, but they reallyneed to be developed with concrete goals and objectives," Wells said. "It's fun if you just want to have a zombie event, but for this we're actually undertaking (the event) with specific teaching competen- cies in mind." Wells said Saturday's exercise was intended to simulate a "point of dispensing" scenario. The procedure is used when public health officials need to distrib- ute a large volume of treatments, medication or vaccination over an entire community population. In such cases, both efficiency and preparedness are key in delivering the care people need in a timely manner. "Theyneedtobe able todothis for a large number of people in a short period of time, so it really is a plan that has to be exercised quite often, because you con- tinually need volunteers to help set up and you need the ability to keep the experience fresh in everybody's mind," Wells said. Throughout the simulation, volunteers were assigned vari- ous roles - either as zombies seeking treatment or uninfected individuals seeking vaccina- tion - and given instructions regarding how to behave and how to answer certain medical questions. The response work- ers were then responsible for managing the treatment process as the "patients" moved through the POD site. The response workers also had to deal with a variety of challenging scenarios that could be experienced in a real-life sce- nario, such as language barriers, unaccompanied children, dis- abled individuals and potentially contagious subjects. Susan Ringler-Cerniglia, Washtenaw County Public Health Department public infor- mation officer, said the exercise provided a way for the public health workers to assess poten- tial areas of improvement in their procedures. While plans often look great on paper, she said problems often come to light once such plans are implement- ed. As bottlenecks in the process were identified, the officials leading the event were able to reallocate resources and work- ers, thus ensuring a smooth flow of patients through the treat- ment area. All patients leaving the POD received a bag of jelly beans, which represented medi- cation that would be distributed in the case of a real-world emer- gency. Public Health graduate stu- dent Matthew Shearer, one of the event coordinators, said the complexity and variety of potential public health concerns makes POD scenarios a "pretty sizable undertaking." He added that students can benefit from seeing simulations rather than experiencing the procedure for the first time during a real emer- gency situation. "It gives people something familiar and fun to take part in, but it also gives us the platform to really express the important of preparedness," Shearer said. "We want to inform the com- munity that public health pre- paredness starts with you. We can put out all of the information we want, but people need to take ownership of themselves, their families and friends and make sure they have plans and materi- als available in the event some- thinghappens." School of Public Health student Alex Riordan pretends to be blind at the Zombie Apocalypse hosted by the School of Public Health at the Washtenaw County Learning Resource center S ster preparedness enentKbYwLuuai layr pTOP LEFT: School of Public Health student Stephanie Filipp is quarantined at the Zombie Apocalypse disaster prepared- ness event hosted by the School of Public Health at the Washtenaw County Learning Resource center Saturday. BOTTOM LEFT: School of Public Health students Bradley lott and Erika Trumble pose for a selfie. RIGHT: School of Public Health student Anna Frick pretends to be-a ten-year old child School of Public Health student Rachel Jantz is zombified at the Zombie Apocalypse disaster preparedness event hosted by the School of Public Health at the Washtenaw County Learning Resource center Saturday. TOP: University of Michigan-Dearborn student Elise Mara does zombie make-up for participants at the Zombie Apoca- lypse disaster preparedness event. BOTTOM: Associate Epi- demiology Professor Eden Wells at the Zombie Apocalypse disaster preparedness event. SAVE BIG before Spring Commencement! Guaranteed LOWEST PRICES ON CAMPUS Purchase your CAP & GOWN, ANNOUNCEMENTS, DIPLOMA FRAME and UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CLASS RING! mic higanyearbook comn/grad Official Sponsor of Grad Extravaganza Graduation brings many changes. Your checking account doesn't have to be one of them. Talk to a TCF representative today!