DANVILLE — For those in the pandemic-response business, it’s what you can’t see that can cause the most damage.

From an invisible virus to an unexpected event that could upset the east central Illinois region’s emergency plan, emergency coordinators here work year around to make the unseen visible.

“We are always training for the ‘what if,” said Troy Dunn, Provena Health’s training center coordinator for its regional Emergency Management Service. “You can never prepare yourself for one thing.”

State and local disaster agencies were recently tested on how well the local pandemic-response plan works with the H1N1 viral outbreak in the U.S. in April. That’s important considering Illinois reported another Swine Flu-related death last week, and experts say the virus could make a larger comeback with colder weather.

According to Vermilion County Public Health Administrator Stephen Laker, while the outbreak never did get to the level where the local plan was put into action, it did provide an inkling of how well the overall system might perform in the case of a real outbreak.

“As far as the plan, it really wasn’t an official practice run,” Laker said. “But it was a good test for the Strategic National Stockpile plan, which was activated.”

The SNS is a system designed to deliver medical supplies or vaccine to U.S. communities before or during an outbreak, and its effectiveness is tantamount in any individual community’s response because it brings medicine and a link to the outside world in the case of catastrophic event. The April run left supplies that could be used to treat symptoms of the flu, but no actual vaccine because none has been developed yet to fight H1N1.

“It’s a huge logistical endeavor and it’s very important that it work well,” Laker said. “I was encouraged in how well it went.”

Laker said the health department would normally request a drop themselves in an emergency, but the state initiated the plan this time. He said there was a certain excitement to the clandestine delivery, which happened in the early morning hours as National Guard members delivered the area’s allotment of flu vaccine in shrink-wrapped pallets. The pallets are now stored at an undisclosed and secure facility.

“It’s done in a very secure process because it has such a high value,” he said, adding the success of the drops led to the cancellation of a statewide dry-run test June 4, dubbed “Prairie Plague.”

“We had the drill scheduled,” Laker said, “but now we don’t have to drill it because we just did it. We are better prepared.”

Anita Guffey, director of emergency preparedness for Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, said the state’s declaration of a medical emergency caused 14 hospitals in the 18-county Region 6 area to pull out and dust off response plans.

“It was a very good learning experience,” said Guffey, who is the regional coordinator for Carle, a “pod” hospital that takes the lead in determining regional disaster response. “We found out we needed to tweak our plans.”

The fact hospitals even have a plan in place is a testament to advanced planning from the state and federal governments, she said, which have earmarked grant money in recent years so hospitals could be prepared for pandemic-type or bio-terrorism responses.

“That’s been the direction for several years now, so we all have pandemic-preparation plans in hand,” she said.

Carle sponsored a program through its Community Medical School this in 2006 to discuss such topics as “Stopping Infectious Diseases from Becoming Epidemics” and “Protecting the Public from Epidemics and Bioterrorism” when the Swin Flu outbreak started making headlines.

Guffey said advances like the Illinois Hospital Alert Network have given each hospital the same information at the same time even during the height of the pandemic scare, and grant-funded communications devices kept the coordinator in instant contact with the other hospitals, including Danville’s Provena.

“At the time, there was tons of information out there,” she said of the April scare. “Sometimes the recommended procedures and practices were changing twice a day. Communication is always the biggest challenge.”

She said a result of the real-life “exercise” was adding another layer of response to the regional plan that includes a more direct and local response based on the geography of an outbreak.

“For one thing we found out, we have a lot of masks, but we need to purchase more in smaller sizes,” she said. “We found out we have smaller faces because Carle has a lot of women there.”

The health department’s Laker agreed the overall exercise has been helpful because emergency management workers have gotten out the proper information to the public and have discussed potential problems that might affect the local plan down the road as well.

In short, it led everyone to think of the plan in real terms, rather than something in a manual. Likewise, communication networks, including teleconferences with other state and federal agencies, gave planners here information in real time.

“When I played this game 33 years ago, we had to wait for snail mail,” he said. “We have means we didn’t have then, but we’re always still asking, ‘How credible is the information?’

“We don’t want to overact either. I’m not a passive individual, but when I apply aggressive action to something, it better require it.”

He said the fact Illinois well leads the nation in reported cases of H1N1 at 1,357 is a testament to the detection system the state uses, not proof there is a greater number affected here.

Provena’s Dunn said the hospital here and the company’s entire medical system used the outbreak scare to ensure their response plans were sound, supplies were in place and protocol was being followed to properly identify suspicious cases.

“We do have disaster supplies that are available like masks and gloves and gowns,” he said, “and we do have access to larger quantities if they’re needed.”

He said the hospital system is better prepared should the outbreak rear its head again this fall as expected.

“Just going through this stuff makes you get out your plans and thinking about how it will work,” he said. “It’s something that you’re currently updating, but this allowed us to practice.”

While the hospital normally conducts two disaster drills each year, the recent one had the advantage of not being planned, which provided a real-life feel as procedures were considered.

“There’s a whole chain of events that allow us to keep functioning, even in an emergency,” Dunn said. “It calls for everyone being involved and we have to ask questions like, ‘What happens if something happens at 3 in the morning?’”

He said public awareness is important, but there is also a concern that the publicity surrounding the outbreak will lead to skepticism among the public. While the pandemic met the criteria of a quickly-spreading disease, luckily it hasn’t turned out to be a highly dangerous strain. Most of the dead have had other medical complications and to this point the general public has been unaffected.

“What that does is give you a lot of time to prepare,” he said. “I think you’ll see it (the pandemic issue) go away but pick back up in the fall. We don’t want people to become complacent.

“We’re always expecting the next thing, depending on whatever it is,” Dunn said. “You’d like to say you’re prepared for anything, but you don’t want to lie to people either. We have to be able to function in an emergency, and in that case you’re relying on everybody. We know who we can call on and draw on.

“I think we’re very well prepared in this region.”