In response to avian influenza ("avian flu" or "bird flu"), St. Luke's is preparing its lab for surveillance and opened an email "helpline" to answer basic questions from the public.
"While we have not had any known human cases of avian influenza in our local area, Pennsylvania or New Jersey, we have learned from past novel infectious diseases that it is prudent to be proactive in our approach," said Jeffrey Jahre, MD, St. Luke's Senior Vice President of Medical & Academic Affairs and Section Chief Emeritus of Infectious Diseases.
During the height of the COVID crisis, St. Luke's emerged as the leading source of information and guidance locally as well as a most trusted resource statewide and nationally.
"We are proud of our leadership role and continue to take our responsibility to our community very seriously," Jahre said. "We learned during COVID that we cannot wait for government agencies to ride in and save the day."
St. Luke's is working closely with the network's lab and clinical providers to ensure prompt diagnosis and treatment should there be local cases of human infection of avian influenza.
In addition, the network's Occupational Medicine department has ...