Rensselaer County hosts drill to prepare for disease outbreaks
AVERILL PARK (WRGB) – Tuesday the Rensselaer County Department of Health hosted a Point of Dispensing (POD) Drill at Averill Park High School.
The goal of the drill is to prepare for a widespread disease outbreak, like the Flu or Hepatitis, or a situation like a bio-terrorist attack. The county would set up points of dispensing sites across the county to medicate or vaccinate county residents within 48 hours. Points of Dispensing sites are set up in easily accessible, familiar locations like schools, community centers, or churches.
Members of the Department of Health and Medical Reserve Corps met with volunteers who were mock patients. During today’s drill, the county pretended there was a Hepatitis-A outbreak, and they gave the volunteers fake vaccines.
The county says they make the drills as real as possible to give everyone hands on experience with handling the situation.
Counties across New York State host these POD drills every year.
In 2009, Rensselaer County put the practice to use and opened up point of dispensing sites across the county to vaccinate the public during the H1N1 flu epidemic
