NJCPHP News PHlash
NOVEMBER 12 - DECEMBER 2, 2010
THE NEW JERSEY CENTER FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PREPAREDNESS AT UMDNJ- SCHOOL OF
PUBLIC HEALTH
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. PREPAREDNESS NEWS
[1] Hong Kong diagnoses first bird flu case in seven years- BBC (11/17/10)
[2] Florida confirms first cholera case- CIDRAP (11/17/10)
[3] Security, Health Officials Said to Collaborate Now More Than Ever
Before- Global Security Newswire (11/29/10)
[4] Senate approves long-delayed food safety bill- CNN (11/30/10)
[5] Malaria case found in Duval County- The Florida Times-Union (12/1/10)
II. UPCOMING EVENTS
[1] Public Health Seminar: "Food Safety Update: A State Perspective"
[2] The Biosecurity Seminar Series- Fall 2010
[3] Public Health Preparedness Summit
[4] Bridging the Gaps: Public Health and Radiation Emergency Preparedness
III. ANNOUNCEMENTS
[1] Resource Guide for Public Health Preparedness
[2] HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) Launches
new Public Health Emergency Portal
[3] “Population Behaviors in Dirty Bomb Attack Scenarios: A Survey of the
National Capital Region"
[4] Graduate Certificate in Transportation Management: Vulnerability, Risk
and Security
I. PREPAREDNESS NEWS
[1] Hong Kong diagnoses first bird flu case in seven years- BBC (11/17/10)
A woman in Hong Kong is seriously ill in hospital with bird flu - the first
human case of the disease to be diagnosed in the territory since 2003.
Officials said the 59-year-old fell ill shortly after returning from a visit
to the Chinese mainland. It is not yet clear whether she contracted the
potentially fatal disease there or in Hong Kong. The territory has raised
its alert level to "serious", meaning there is a risk of contracting the
disease. The last outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus in Hong Kong killed
six people in 2003. Health chief York Chow said there was no sign yet that
the virus has been spread between humans and that investigations were
focusing on poultry as being the source of the infection. "But we will be
concentrating on people who were in contact with her when she showed
symptoms and also when she was in Hong Kong," the AFP news agency quoted him
as saying.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11782582
[2] Florida confirms first cholera case- CIDRAP (11/17/10)
Health officials in Florida, home to the nation's largest Haitian
population, announced the state's first cholera case this year, in a woman
from Collier County who had recently returned from Haiti. Confirmation of
the first US case related to the cholera outbreaks comes a day after the
Dominican Republic, Haiti's neighbor, confirmed its first cholera case. The
Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said it expected to see cholera
cases turn up elsewhere in the Americas. At a press briefing, Dr Thomas
Torok, an investigator with the Florida Department of Health (FDH), said the
woman is from the Naples area and contracted the disease while visiting
relatives in the Artibonite River region, where the cholera outbreak began,
the Orlando Sentinel reported. He said the woman was hospitalized upon her
return from Haiti and is now home and recovering. She does not work in a job
that requires contact with the public. Earlier this month the Florida
Department of Health (FDH) said it anticipated finding cholera in some
travelers returning from family visits or relief efforts, and it has asked
doctors to increase their vigilance for possible cases. The FDH said in a
press release that the woman's illness was detected through enhanced disease
surveillance and that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
confirmed the case. The FDH said the risk of cholera spread in the United
States is extremely low, due to water, sanitation, and food systems that
minimize fecal contamination.
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/fs/food-disease/news/nov1710cho...
.html
[3] Security, Health Officials Said to Collaborate Now More Than Ever
Before- Global Security Newswire (11/29/10)
Two international measures designed to boost each country's preparedness
against manmade or natural disease outbreaks have also succeeded in bringing
law enforcement and public health officials closer together to combat such
threats, a panel of experts said. Yet while the Biological Weapons
Convention and the World Health Organization's
International Health Regulations have
increased cooperation, officials from the security and health communities
also must be careful not to encroach on each other's domain or become bogged
down in semantics, they warned. There are more opportunities for the two
communities to interact because of a growing recognition by both sides that
only way to monitor the rapidly increasing globalization of "dual-use"
biological technology -- which can be used in regular research efforts or
clandestinely put toward a weapons program -- is to pool their resources,
according to Keiji Fukuda, the WHO assistant director-general for health
security and environment. "When we look at the two [measures], you can see
there is a large potential area of overlap," he said during a speaker event
on global health and security organized by the University of Pittsburgh's
Center for Biosecurity. "In fact they are very similar in certain respects
and they highlight the need for certain things like surveillance and
capacity building. These are very prominent in the thinking behind both of
the treaties."
http://gsn.nti.org/gsn/nw_20101129_6481.php
[4] Senate approves long-delayed food safety bill- CNN (11/30/10)
The Senate passed a food safety bill to give more power to the Food and Drug
Administration, more than a year after the House of Representatives passed a
similar measure. The bill, designed to bolster the safety of the nation's
food supply, passed 73-25. A version of the bill passed the House in July
2009 but had languished in the Senate, a fact that has angered some food
safety advocates. A date for another House vote -- this time to provide
final passage of the Senate's version of the bill -- has not been set. The
nonprofit advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest was one
of the groups that released a report in September urging senators to pass
the stalled bill. At that time, the group said that there had been 85
recalls of FDA-regulated foods since the House of Representatives passed its
version of the bill. The recalls were associated with 1,850 reported
illnesses, the report said.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/11/30/food.safety.bill/index.html?hpt=C2
[5] Malaria case found in Duval County- The Florida Times-Union (12/1/10)
Duval County (Florida) health officials issued an unusual warning: Beware of
malaria.
Tests show that a 31-year-old Jacksonville woman has become infected with
the typically tropical disease despite having no history of international
travel, the health department announced. “Really?” Bernard Okech, a malaria
expert at the University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogens Institute in
Gainesville, responded when a reporter told him the woman had not been
outside the country recently. If further testing confirms it as a locally
acquired case, it would be Duval’s first in 10 years. A local case would be
“very unusual” because of the region’s aggressive mosquito-control efforts
and tendency of people in developed nations to spend most of their time
indoors, Okech said. Though infected with the most lethal variety of
malaria, the woman is recovering easily, said health department spokesman
Charles Griggs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is conducting
tests to determine whether the case is of local origin, Griggs said. This
year, there have been 111 cases reported in Florida, including five in
Duval. But to date, all have involved people who traveled to one of the 100
countries where malaria is common.
http://jacksonville.com/news/florida/2010-12-01/story/malaria-case-found...
al-county
II. UPCOMING EVENTS
[1] Public Health Seminar: "Food Safety Update: A State Perspective"
When: December 16, 2010, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Where: UMDNJ- School of Public Health, 683 Hoes Lane West, Piscataway, NJ
This seminar highlights emerging trends in food consumption and the
associated challenges that Federal, State and Local Health Departments are
confronting. To address such challenges, a new paradigm has been developed.
This emerging paradigm exhibits a more robust Food Protection Plan that is
built upon prevention, enhanced intervention, response, and recovery.
During the seminar, the Plan will be discussed from both a Federal and State
perspective. The controversial new menu calorie labeling requirement for
chain food establishments, as well as specific Federal and State legislative
and rule updates, will also be addressed. A final segment of this
presentation will introduce the audience to the Department of Health and
Senior Services education and outreach efforts, tools, and materials.
For Registration On-line:
https://ophp.umdnj.edu/wconnect/wc.dll?acecode~GroupCatalog~GROUP~SEMPHS...
lic+Health+Seminar+Series~SEM
Or you can register by telephone or email. Call Carl Donaldson at (732)
235-9451 or send an email to donaldcj@umdnj.edu. All seminars are held from
10:30 AM to 12:00 PM at UMNDJ School of Public Health, 683 Hoes Lane West,
Piscataway, NJ. All seminars carry 1.5 CEU, 1.5 CHES, 1.5 Nurse Contact
Hours.
[2] The Biosecurity Seminar Series- Fall 2010
When: multiple dates
Where: Carl Icahn Laboratory Room 280, Princeton, NJ 12:30 p.m. to 2:00
p.m.
Please mark your calendar for the upcoming Program on Science and
Biosecurity Seminar Series. All seminars will take place at the Carl Icahn
Laboratory, Room 280 from 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted.
Lunch will be served.
The schedule is as follows:
December 3 Malcolm Dando, PhD Title of Talk: “How the 7th Review
Conference of the 2011 BWC can improve life scientists' understanding of
biosecurity and the dual use dilemma.” Prof. Dando is a professor of
International Security at the Department of Peace Studies, University of
Bradford, UK. (http://www.basicint.org/people/Prof-Malcolm-Dando)
December 10 Dr. Gabriele Kraatz-Wadsack. Title of Talk: "UN activities in
support of global actions related to biosecurity." Dr. Kraatz-Wadsack is
Chief, Weapons of Mass Destruction Branch, Office of Disarmament Affairs,
United Nations.
December 17 Kristine Beardsley, Title of Talk: to be Announced.
Ms. Beardsley is on the staff of the U.S. National Security Council.
For questions, please contact Laura Kahn at lkahn@princeton.edu or
609-258-6763. For additional information please see the website at:
http://www.princeton.edu/sgs/seminars/biosecurity/
[3] Public Health Preparedness Summit
When: February 22-25, 2011
Where: Atlanta, GA
The 2011 Public Health Preparedness Summit- The National Health Security
Strategy: Building A Resilient Nation will be held February 22-25, 2011 in
Atlanta, Georgia. For more information and to register:
http://www.phprep.org/
[4] Bridging the Gaps: Public Health and Radiation Emergency Preparedness
When: March 21-24, 2010
Where: Atlanta, GA
Bridging the Gaps: Public Health and Radiation Emergency Preparedness is a
national conference on public health preparedness for radiation emergencies.
For more information: http://cdcradiationconference.org/
III. ANNOUNCEMENTS
[1] Resource Guide for Public Health Preparedness
The Resource Guide for Public Health Preparedness is a gateway to freely
available online resources related to public health preparedness. Resources
include expert guidelines, factsheets, websites, research reports, articles,
and other tools aimed at the public health community. All resources are
cataloged and may be searched by keyword or browsed by topic.
http://phpreparedness.nlm.nih.gov/
[2] HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) Launches
new Public Health Emergency Portal
The new PHE.gov acts as a cross-governmental portal for residents in the
U.S. and worldwide to obtain information from all U.S. federal agencies and
their state and local partners involved in a public health emergency,
medical disaster or public health aspects of a natural or man-made disaster.
The site was created by the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for
Preparedness and Response (ASPR) in conjunction with cross-governmental
partners to meet public information requirements of the Pandemic and All
Hazards Preparedness Act of 2006, Public Law No. 109-417 and National Health
Security Strategy (NHSS) objectives. Using this portal, visitors can find
the current status and actions taken by the federal government in preparing
for and responding to public health emergencies and medical disasters
. Links to report potential public health
threats, and information about medical response, emergency support functions
and medical services are also available along with public health actions
taken by the federal government during domestic and international
emergencies. In addition, visitors can learn about U.S. efforts to provide
basic and advanced research and development of medical countermeasures and
how these countermeasures will be used in response to public health
emergencies.
[3] “Population Behaviors in Dirty Bomb Attack Scenarios: A Survey of the
National Capital Region"
The survey “Population Behaviors in Dirty Bomb Attack Scenarios: A Survey of
the National Capital Region,” was commissioned by the Virginia Department of
Emergency Management from the University of Virginia Center for Survey
Research and the Center for Risk Management of Engineering Systems. The
survey explored how people get their information in an emergency,
information sources residents trust, the amount of advance preparation
people have completed, and the actions they would take under increasing
levels of personal threat. Most people surveyed would follow instructions to
stay where they are after a radiological dispersion device, or “dirty bomb,”
attack. The survey also indicated that if an evacuation were ordered, most
people would stay close to the region and not travel far. The survey and
results are available at
http://www.vaemergency.com/library/behavior_study/index.cfm.
[4] Graduate Certificate in Transportation Management: Vulnerability, Risk
and Security
The E. J Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University is now offering a Graduate Certificate in Transportation
Management: Vulnerability, Risk and Security. The Graduate Certificate
capitalizes on the strong academic foundation Rutgers offers in planning,
engineering, environmental science, social science and public health.
Designed to provide a multi-faceted foundation for future transportation and
management professionals, the program is administered by the Edward J.
Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy in cooperation with The
School of Engineering, the Graduate School New Brunswick, The University of
Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and the School of Environmental
and Biological Sciences. The certificate is open to matriculated graduate
students in any discipline. Students will be enrolled at the master's level
and receive the TRVS Certificate signifying completion of the program at
graduation. Under certain circumstances, advanced undergraduate students and
doctoral students may be admitted to the certificate program. For more
information, please visit:
http://www.policy.rutgers.edu/ctssr/projects/ts.php