About 200 representatives of 23 tribes attended the Pandemic Influenza Summit for Tribes in Oklahoma City.

Dr. Gregory Felzien, director of the Infectious Diseases Division at the W.W. Hastings Indian Hospital, said Oklahoma Indians are susceptible to pandemic flu due to high rates of diabetes. "When you're dealing with the native people in Oklahoma, they're more immuno-compromised in the sense that diabetes is much more prevalent," he said, The Oklahoman reports.

Dr. Michael Crutcher, Oklahoma's health commissioner, said tribal health facilities can play an important role in a flu outbreak. "They have clinics. They have health professionals. They have hospitals that can be used to help," he was quoted as saying.

The conference was organized by the Southern Plains Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center of the Oklahoma City Area Inter-Tribal Health Board.

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Tribes discuss pandemic readiness (The Oklahoman 8/16)
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