Texas not ready for bird flu outbreak (size, poverty, low public health $)

[rainbow4321]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-texasflu_07tex.ART.State.Edition2.1dfbdce7.html

If a deadly bird flu spreads fast and wide among humans, Texas may be one of the more vulnerable places in the U.S. because of its size, poverty and tightfisted spending on public health, experts said Thursday.

Many duties required to contain a feared flu outbreak – such as keeping large numbers of people homebound for extended periods and distributing not just medicine but also food and water – would fall to states and localities.


Dr. Glezen worries that Texas – which leads the nation in lack of health insurance, with 25 percent of its people uncovered – could be devastated by a pandemic.

"We have such a large uninsured population that, for the most part, the only access they have would be through public health," he said. "And if we don't have people in public health who can deliver vaccines and anti-virals to those people, they're not going to be treated."