By Marilyn Bardsley

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SAVANNAH, Ga. (Court TV) — More than four hours away from the commercial cacophony of Atlanta, amidst a colorful blaze of fragrant blossoms, historic Savannah is like a pleasant trip back into another century. Stately houses from a bygone era shaded by huge live oaks that are dripping Spanish moss; horse-drawn buggies pausing leisurely at Savannah's legendary squares as visitors hear about this beautiful semi-tropical city, so steeped in its past.

In many ways Savannah is known as a party city like New Orleans, annually throwing one of the largest St. Patrick's Day celebrations in the world and welcoming millions of tourists every year, many of them drawn by the best-selling book and popular movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

While much of the world's media, scientists and governments are fretting over a potential influenza pandemic, exacerbated by the rapidly spreading, deadly strain of avian flu, Savannah's local media had very little on the subject. But then tourist cities don't like troublesome news.

As I watched other cities announce their pandemic plans, I wondered if there was one for Savannah and for the large and rapidly growing counties surrounding the historic city. As one of the snow birds that fled the colder regions for the warmth of Savannah, I had a personal stake in the answer.

I began with the chairman of the Chatham County Commission that governs the county of which Savannah is the largest part and was referred to the Chatham County Health Department. Dr. W. Douglas Skelton, the director of the 8-county Coastal Health District, invited me to his office.

Dr. Skelton's credentials are very impressive — clearly a very experienced medical school and public health executive. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the energetic Dr. Skelton had brought in a number of his team members to tell me about their areas of responsibility emergency preparedness, epidemiology, medical support and public information and communications, and clinical services. It was comforting to see him holding a dog-eared book that I recognized instantly John M. Barry's The Great Influenza: The Epic Story on the Deadliest Plague in History. It would be hard to find someone serious about the influenza that hadn't read that book. Things were definitely looking up.

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Contact Marilyn Bardsley at marilyn.bardsley@turner.com

 

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