BIOTERRORISM: preparations

In early April 2005, a chilling scenario unfolded as seriously ill patients began overwhelming New Jersey hospitals. A disrupted bioterrorism event caused the release of an agent in suburban New Jersey requiring virtually every county to have a point of dispensing for antibiotics. Fortunately, this was just a test, a Department of Homeland Security TOPOFF exercise, but it helped us to understand our ability to respond to an acute outbreak of natural or manmade origins. One clear lesson was that the effectiveness and ability to respond and assist people comes from the strength of the local agencies and local response. Close coordination, communication and integration among local responders are essential to minimize the impact of a health disaster or outbreak.Last fall, the H1N1 influenza outbreak brought this lesson home to the Lehigh Valley. As the number of cases mounted, our regional hospitals added surge capacity, with Lehigh Valley Health Network treating 700 cases of flu-like illness during the week of Oct. 22 alone. New strains of serious infectious diseases have emerged (SARS, avian flu) or experienced resurgence (mumps and shigella) in our region in the past seven years.Our current state of affairs raises serious concerns about the health of people in Lehigh and Northampton counties. Our counties are behind in a state that is behind. Robert Wood Johnson’s health rankings list Lehigh 32nd and Northampton 59th out of 67 counties in Pennsylvania in morbidity (poor health). The Trust for America’s Health’s “Shortchanging America’s Health” report ranks Pennsylvania 47th in per capita public health Center for Disease Control funding ($14.86 per person); New Jersey is 40th at $16.67; New York is 19th at $22.21; and Maryland is 12th at $24.65.The focus of a public health department is to prevent illness and provide for community health. This includes population health (prevention of infectious diseases and homeland security) and environmental health (water supply, food safety). Hospitals and health care professionals who work inside hospitals are skilled at protecting individual health, providing care for individuals who are ill (heart attacks, cancer, newborns, etc.). Hospitals and doctors, working together with health systems, play a role in public and community health, but they cannot do it alone.Improving health requires a public health infrastructure in the Lehigh Valley. A bi-county health bureau would provide such an infrastructure to track emerging infectious disease and educate members of our communities. It would also offer wider distribution of vaccines by partnering with hospitals and other agencies.Such coordinated and widespread distribution of vaccines can reduce the incidence and impact of infectious disease in the Lehigh Valley. A stronger bi-county health bureau would help leverage state funds to help us improve overall health in the two counties and create a coordinated, timely response in the event of a bioterrorism or other homeland security event.Healthy communities are places where people want to live, work, raise families and stay. We have excellent physicians and hospitals but underfunded and inadequate public health departments. It is time we bring our public and community health to the level we all strive for in our individual health.
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/05/opinion_the_case_for_a_regiona.html