Medical professionals needed for MRC Corps

Cranbury initiates pandemic prevention methods

By: Lacey Korevec
   Cranbury residents can sleep a little more soundly, knowing that the township soon will be more prepared to handle health pandemics such as an outbreak of avian flu or a bioterrorism anthrax attack.
   Community members who are in the medical profession, including licensed doctors, nurses, dentists and pharmacists, soon will be able to join Cranbury’s Medical Reserve Corps, a volunteer group of licensed health professionals that will be called upon to help administer immunizations in the case of a disaster or disease outbreak, said Cranbury Board of Health Chairwoman Bernice Shapiro.
   "Basically, it’s a group of volunteers, primarily with medical or medical-related backgrounds, who provide an organized approach to supporting communities in dispensing medicines, immunizations and to help in large-scale public health emergency situations," she said.
   Medical Reserve Corps is a national initiative to prepare counties and towns for immediate local response to support existing medical emergency units in health emergencies. Cranbury’s MCR unit will work directly with the Middlesex County MRC.
   Ms. Shapiro said the group would not cost the township any money, but would be a great resource in case of an emergency.
   Those who volunteer will need only a few hours of training, administered by the county, and then will meet once a month, said Board of Health member John Coumbis.
   Dr. Coumbis served as a volunteer for Mercer County’s MRC before moving to Cranbury. He said he was motivated after anthrax was found in the Trenton Main Post Office in Hamilton in 2001, a crisis in which he was a responding physician.
   "From that experience, I learned how important it is to be able to have a team that you can call upon to help in a time of crisis," he said. "And I think that every community, not just ours, should take it upon themselves to have a few people to volunteer in this organization so they can function as a team that could eventually be called upon to respond to a public health emergency, either in their community or a neighboring community."
   Board of Health members have gotten support for the development of the MRC through meeting with Township Committee members and Cranbury Police Chief Jay Hansen, who has agreed to act as a temporary liaison for the project. When the board meets in November, it will assign tasks, do a final review and then discuss ways to reach out to the community for volunteers, Ms. Shapiro said. As of now, there is no official date set for when the unit will be formed.
   "I’m hoping that it will start within the next couple of months," Ms. Shapiro said. "There is still some information that we need to gather."
   Dr. Coumbis said the volunteers will eventually be grouped into a chain-of-command system. Though the Board of Health has not yet worked out all of the details, he said the group most likely will be notified by police or local public health officials in the case of an emergency.
   Cranbury’s chapter will basically be a part of the county’s MRC, but Dr. Coumbis said it’s still important that Cranbury have a local unit.
   "In the event of a crisis, there will be Cranbury people helping their fellow residents," he said. "And who would be better to respond to an area than the people who are most familiar with the landscape and the people?"
   Ms. Shapiro said she hopes to see many residents volunteer to be part of this response team.
   "It’s still a nice, small community and I think part of the beauty of Cranbury is that it is a township of people interested in helping one another and coming together in a time of need," she said. "I really feel there is a number of people who will hopefully step forward."
   Licensed health-care professionals who are interested in learning more about MRC or volunteering should contact the township Board of Health by e-mailing Bernice Shapiro at [email protected].