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The American Veterinary Medical Association hosts a animal disaster preparedness website
that includes state animal disaster plans and other resources.
Interview with Center Director Dr. John Herbold
YouTube is hosting a background interview of Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Preparedness Director Dr. John Herbold.
New Select Agents Guide
A new Select Agents Guide has just been released by the Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Preparedness. This 52-page manual by Dr. Liliana Rodriguez, the Center's Laboratory Training Manager, includes:
• General concepts of select agents
• Requirements and rules for working with select agents
• Compliance with the requirements and rules
• An appendix covering biosafety and containment
Website Provides Useful Tools
CIDRAPpractices.org provides tools to:
• Help you plan for the needs of at-risk people
• Improve personal preparedness
• Teach people about influenza in 23 languages, from Arabic to Vietnamese
• Help healthcare providers and health departments plan for a pandemic
• Offer ways to limit the spread of influenza when vaccines or treatments are in short supply
Dr. Robert Emery Appointed to US Public Health Service Advisory Committee
Dr. Robert Emery, the Center's Associate Director of Outreach and Service, has been appointed to the US PHS Environmental Health Officers Professional Advisory Committee (EHOPAC) Readiness Subcommittee. He is the only reserve officer to be appointed.
New disaster Recovery and Enviornmental Health Web Page Launched
New Disaster Recovery and Environmental Health web page was launched by the National Library of Medicine.
Ready or Not? HAVE A PLAN Campaign
Ready or Not? A new campaign that encourages Texans to prepare for an emergency. DSHS has launched a statewide emergency preparedness campaign to help Texans prepare for emergencies such as hurricanes, wildfires, terrorist attacks, and disease outbreaks. The key to the Ready or Not? HAVE A PLAN campaign is this new interactive Web site.
ReadyMoms Toolkit for Disasters
Download the ReadyMoms Toolkit as presented at the recent Public Health Preparedness Summit in Atlanta. It includes brochures, posters, a complete list for a 2-week stockpile of food for a family of 4, lists and display signs for non-food preparedness items, explanatory notes and supporting handouts. All items are formatted and printer-ready - all you need to do is click the print button!!
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CDC Releases Updated Public Health Emergency Law and Forensic Epidemiology Trainings CD-ROM
The Public Health Law Program of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has just released version three of the Public Health Emergency Law and Forensic Epidemiology training materials on CD-ROM. These self-contained training packages were developed by for use by instructors in any jurisdiction in the United States who provide public health preparedness training to front-line practitioners. Order free CD-ROM
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A new Course Calendar that includes all classes taught by the Center and its partners is now available. Use it to view all the courses in a selected month on a calendar page. Click on the course for additional details. You can also view all Pending Courses and search for courses by type and by date. Both features are available from the left navigation area on all pages.
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| Guy Parcel, former Dean of The University of Texas School of Public Health (UTSPH) , assigned the task of coordinating UTSPH efforts assisting Hurricane Katrina evacuees to the Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Preparedness. The Center coordinated UTSPH interactions with external agencies including the City and County health authorities, the Red Cross, and other relief organizations. In particular, it worked with the UTSPH Student Epidemic Intelligence Society (SEIS) on rapid health assessments at the George R. Brown Convention Center for the City of Houston and at the Astrodome and Reliant Center for Harris County. Information about the school's activities related to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts were posted on this web site. |
Rapid Health Assessments
The primary volunteer effort was a rapid assessment of the health of evacuees at the Astrodome, Reliant Center, and George R. Brown Convention Center. The Student Epidemic Intelligence Society (SEIS) managed this effort from an Emergency Operations Center that operated from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM, seven days a week. The SEIS recruited volunteers and managed the data collection with the assistance of faculty from UTSPH, other schools of public health from throughout the U.S., and the CDC. The Center developed an electronic form, linked from this web site, that was used to make it easy to volunteer and which allowed the SEIS to evaluate and contact volunteers.
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Christian Guieterrez, Hurricane Katrina volunteer and member of the SEIS, checks out PDA's to other volunteers. |
The Administration just released its review of the Federal Response To Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned. The report identifies the systemic problems in Federal emergency preparedness and response revealed by Hurricane Katrina, and the best solutions to address them. It includes:
- 17 lessons the Executive Branch has learned after reviewing and analyzing the response to Katrina;
- 125 specific recommendations to the President, which have been reviewed by relevant Federal departments and agencies, and will now enter an implementation process; and
- 11 critical actions to be completed before June 1, 2006 - the first day of the next hurricane season.
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The UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters announced the availability of a new online resource: Hazard Risk Assessment Instrument (HRAI). This instrument was developed by the Center through CDC funding and in collaboration with a local health department. It provides guidance for state and local health agencies to facilitate the process of conducting a hazard vulnerability analysis.
The instrument uses a standardized emergency management approach to identifying locally relevant hazards, assessing the probability of occurrence, and calculating the potential impacts of maximum credible events. The instrument varies from most emergency management tools, however, in specifically identifying impacts that are relevant to public health.
You can download the tool from the UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters home page at http://www.cphd.ucla.edu/. You must register there to obtain a user name and password via email to use to download this Adobe Acrobat document.
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A new field manual for first responders, Management of Dead Bodies after Disasters: A Field Manual for First Responders, offers step-by-step guidance on how to recover and identify victims killed in disasters while respecting the needs and rights of survivors. The manual was published by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. It is aimed at facilitating proper identification of victims and preventing mass burials and cremations. The book dispels the widely held misconception that dead bodies pose a serious health threat in the aftermath of disasters.
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The New Jersey Center for Public Health Preparedness includes late-breaking news in their bimonthly email newsletter, NJCPHP New PHlash. You can subscribe to it from a link in their archives.
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In January, RAND Corporation, with support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, launched a new Internet resource—the Public Health Preparedness Database—a project representing two years of research and development. Designed to help state and local health officials find the best exercises to prepare for public health emergencies, the web site’s key feature is a new searchable database of public health emergency preparedness exercises.
The database represents the highest caliber of exercises collected from agencies throughout the United States, including the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Agriculture, state and local health departments, and private sector companies. The database tool allows users to search among five types of exercises—drill, orientation, tabletop, functional, or full-scale exercise—covering events related to 19 biological and chemical agents and natural disasters. The search results show not only the relevant exercises, but also how they rate on five critical evaluation criteria so users can make informed choices in selecting exercises best suited to local needs.
Public health and emergency preparedness professionals can also use the site to access key resources on emergency preparedness, including related RAND reports on public health preparedness, and links to resources through government agencies, professional organizations for public health and emergency responders, and academic centers for public health preparedness. Visit the web site at www.rand.org/health/projects/php/.
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Statistics and Timeline
The Washington Post tracks the spread of avian flu since 2003 in a recent article.
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Comprehensive Paper
This paper, What you always wanted to know about Bird Flu
, describes what Bird Flu is and how the disease might be prevented and possibly treated. It also discusses the implications of pandemic flu.
Updated: 8/12/2009
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