By Lori EhdeIt’s not a question of "if." It’s a question of "when." That’s what public health officials are saying about the next pandemic flu.The most likely virus to affect humans worldwide is the Avian flu, or bird flu, which has a 50-percent death rate in infected humans.Simultaneous drills in Rock and Nobles counties Thursday were designed to prepare the communities for a public health emergency like the bird flu, should one ever occur.In Luverne, a vaccine clinic was set up at the Armory to practice mass immunizing large numbers of people."Overall, we’re pleased with how it went," said Nobles-Rock Community Health Registered Nurse Diane Boyenga. "It helps us to know where our weak points are and where are strong points are."She said about 150 people in Luverne received "pretend" vaccine during the drill between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. Thursday."We were hoping to do 100 volunteers, so we were pleased with the turnout," Boyenga said.The drill was funded by a Minnesota Public Health Preparedness Grant and a Homeland Security and Emergency Management Grant.Details of the drill were kept somewhat secret until the day before the drill.A last-minute twist that state health officials threw into the drill was the addition of people with contraindications to the vaccine.These individuals needed secondary oral antibiotics, and that made the process take longer."We had some bottle-necking and a backup of the lines," Boyenga said, "but it was nice to see it all play out."For the sake of the drill, health officials were pretending the flu had not yet reached the state, but there had been orders from state officials to set up a clinic to vaccinate.No real needles were used in the drill and no real pills were given out.Nobles-Rock Community Health and local agencies have been meeting for months to plan the drill, and they got together for a "table-top drill" in February."It’s a lot different setting when you’re talking about it than actually implementing it," Boyenga said.She said the entire staff of Nobles-Rock Community Health in the two counties was involved in the drill, along with law enforcement and emergency management and the hospital and clinic."We’ve been working together on this; no one entity has been at the forefront," Boyenga said. "We’re all valuable players in our own areas of expertise. It’s been nice getting to know everyone better."To simulate vaccinating the masses, volunteers from the city and county, in addition to private businesses, were asked to pose as people seeking vaccinations."Coming up with enough volunteers was the hardest part," said Rock County Emergency Management Director Kyle Oldre."We should have asked more business offices to participate."Boys from Southwestern Youth Services helped set up and take down tables and chairs in the Armory, but they also took their places in line several times over to receive "pretend" vaccine.About the bird fluBoyenga said in general pandemic flu viruses follow a 30-year cycle, so "we’re now overdue," she said.Given the existence of the Avian flu in the world today, it may likely present itself as the next pandemic flu. However, the drill was intended to be training for any pandemic disease.Right now, the only strain of Avian flu is spread from animal to animal and from animal to human. It has not yet mutated to spread from human to human, although health officials say that may likely happen.If that happens, no human will have natural immunity to the highly contagious disease, and it takes roughly five months to develop a vaccine for new strains of viruses.The Avian flu virus, like most flu viruses, affects the nose, throat and lungs and produces symptoms of fever, headache, runny nose and muscle aches.But unlike other viral respiratory infections, it causes severe illness and life-threatening complications in many people.If the virus mutates and becomes able to spread from human to human, it would be as contagious as regular influenza.