Public healthU.S. not ready for bioterrorism
New report finds that if a major disease incident or bioterrorism attack were to occur today, the United States would not be ready for it; significant local, state, and federal budget cuts have had a negative impact on public health departments’ ability to maintain staff capabilities, and their ability to respond to crises
If a major disease incident or bioterrorism attack were to occur today, the United States would not be ready for it. This is according to a new report supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Cattlenetwork quotes the report to say that “there’s an emergency for emergency health preparedness in the United States.” It calls attention to significant local, state, and federal budget cuts and the impact they have had on public health departments’ ability to maintain staff capabilities, and their ability to respond to crises.
Key findings include:
- Twenty-one states were not able rapidly to identify disease-causing E.coli O157:H7 and submit the lab results in 90 percent of cases within four days during 2007-8.
- Thirty-three states and D.C. cut funding for public health from Fiscal Year 2008-9 to FY 2009-10.
- Seven states can not currently share data electronically with health care providers.
- Ten states do not have an electronic syndromic surveillance system that can report and exchange information.
- Six states reported that pre-identified staff were not able to acknowledge notification of emergency exercises or incidents within the target time of sixty minutes at least twice during 2007-8.
- Six states did not activate their emergency operations center a minimum of two times in 2007-8.
- Two states did not develop at least two After-Action Report/Improvement Plans (AAR/IPs) after exercises or real incidents in 2007-2008.
— Read more in Ready or Not? Protecting the Public’s Health from Disasters and Bioterrorism (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
