Massachusetts is one of just seven states that have not bought a single dose of drugs to combat a global influenza epidemic, according to a report released yesterday that examined the nation's disaster preparedness.
In its annual report card, the Trust for America's Health, a nonprofit health advocacy group, said that Massachusetts fulfilled seven of 10 emergency planning goals, including increased public health funding, enlistment of volunteers to respond during a crisis, and the holding of drills with the National Guard.
But the trust criticized the state for not stockpiling medication and failing to ensure that its state laboratory has enough capacity to test for dangerous germs during health emergencies.
"Containment of a pandemic must be a national priority," said the trust's executive director, Jeff Levi. "Any differences in state-by-state preparedness put the whole nation at risk."
Nearly two years ago, Governor Mitt Romney proposed spending $36.5 million to stockpile breathing machines, hospital beds, and flu medication, but the Legislature never allocated that money.
On the best days, Massachusetts hospitals have barely enough beds and ventilators to handle the regular patient load, and they would be staggered by an onslaught of wheezing, feverish flu patients in an epidemic, state officials acknowledge.
"Until the threat is before us, we're slow to act," said Senator Richard T. Moore, chairman of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, who has pushed for the spending. "There are so many pressing needs for scarce dollars knocking on the door."
The chief advocate of the proposal in the House, state Representative Peter J. Koutoujian, said the Senate must act first on the plan. The legislation currently sits before the Senate's Ways and Means Committee.
Tom Lyons, an adviser to the state's public health commissioner on emergency preparedness, said the proposal has been hamstrung for years by a reluctance to include the views of doctors, nurses, and local public health authorities.
"We are willing to work with the Legislature to come up with the best package possible, recognizing there are a lot of competing needs out there," Lyons said.
While Lyons pledged that the state will ultimately purchase flu medications, there is no agreement on how many doses of drugs such as Tamiflu and Relenza will be stashed away. The medical community is still debating the effectiveness of the drugs and whether it is sound to invest in medications with a five- to seven-year shelf life.
All states, even those without their own stockpiles, would receive medication from a national reserve in the case of a global flu epidemic, called a pandemic. With a population of more than 6.4 million, Massachusetts would be expected to get about 1 million doses from the US government.
After severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, struck in 2003, "we really recognized our greatest threat was an infectious disease pandemic," said Dr. Alan Woodward, a past president of the Massachusetts Medical Society who serves on state panels planning for emergencies. A pandemic is "a much greater potential threat to our population as a whole than a natural disaster or a local bioterrorist attack," he added.
"Obviously, we're not nearly as prepared as we should be."
Stephen Smith can be reached at stsmith@globe.com.
