City Begins to Reveal Flu Plan

New York, NY —

City health officials have been keeping their plans for containing a pandemic flu close to their vest, but yesterday they showed a few cards to the City Council. WNYC's Fred Mogul has more.

REPORTER: The Health Department had said it would release a plan this fall, but now says it will come out in 2006. Assistant commissioner Dr. Isaac Weisfuse told a city council committee yesterday the department was waiting for the federal blueprint, which was only released a few weeks ago.

Weisfuse says the Bush Administration hasn't allocated much for cities or states, but New York still would have to depend on federal help if crisis struck. Health Committee Chair Christine Quinn said the city needs to do better.

QUINN: We as a city have to be prepared to take care of ourselves and take care of the health of our own citizens.

REPORTER: The hearings came as China reported its first human death to the H5N1 strain of avian flu. To date, however, only about 60 people have been killed by the virus, all of them in Asia. Almost all of them got it from direct contact with poultry, and it has not been transmitted widely from person-to-person. For WNYC, I'm Fred Mogul.