NJCPHP News PHlash
MARCH 15 - 28, 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE NEW JERSEY CENTER FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PREPAREDNESS AT UMDNJ- SCHOOL OF
PUBLICHEALTH
I. PREPAREDNESS NEWS
[1] Goiânia´s Legacy Two Decades On- International Atomic Energy Agency
(3/7/08)
[2] Spinach, Lettuce, and the Limits of Bioterrorism- The Slate (3/19/08)
[3] Lack of toilets putting millions at risk: UN- AFP (3/20/08)
[4] CDC says pandemic drills hone decision-making tools- CIDRAP (3/25/08)
[5] Hong Kong Shuts Schools in Flu Outbreak- AP (3/12/08)
II. UPCOMING EVENTS
[1] The 13th Annual Public Health Symposium
[2] Finding Your Inner Leader: An ³Aha² Conference to Reach, Rouse, and
Ready Future Public & Community Health Leaders
III. ANNOUNCEMENTS
[1] CDC Releases Updated Public Health Emergency Law and Forensic
Epidemiology Trainings CD-ROM
[2] The National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the Incident Command
System (ICS): A Primer for Volunteers
[3] 1918 Influenza Information
[4] IOM Releases Report on Public Health Preparedness Research Priorities
[5] NJHA issues pandemic flu planning tool
I. PREPAREDNESS NEWS
[1] Goiânia´s Legacy Two Decades On- International Atomic Energy Agency
(3/7/08)
Lessons drawn from the 1987 Goiânia accident in Brazil are still helping
shape actions on radiation safety and security decades later. It was the
worst accident involving a radioactive source that the world has seen.
Cesium chloride from a dumped source that had ended up in a scrap yard
spread undetected for over two weeks. Some 250 people were contaminated and
four died in the first month. The event focused international attention on
the issue of safety standards for radioactive sources. "Before the 1987
accident the regulations were weak when it came to controlling radiation
used in medicine and industry worldwide," says Eliana Amaral, IAEA Director
of Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety. "There was no awareness that
sources must be controlled from ´cradle to grave´; and to prevent the public
accessing them. After the accident these concepts were fostered," Ms. Amaral
says. The IAEA introduced rigorous safety standards for radioactive sources,
namely the International Basic Safety Standards No. 115, co-sponsored by
several international organizations.
http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2008/goiania.html
[2] Spinach, Lettuce, and the Limits of Bioterrorism- The Slate (3/19/08)
A look back at the major E. coli outbreaks of 2006 and the author’s belief
that engineering plagues is harder than it looks. The article reviews the
E. coli outbreaks and the concern of synthetic bacterium.
http://www.slate.com/id/2186711/pagenum/all/#page_start
[3] Lack of toilets putting millions at risk: UN- AFP (3/20/08)
Every day, worldwide, people are falling sick and dying for no better reason
than the lack of a good clean toilet, two UN aid agencies said, underlining
a development issue too often overlooked. About two in every five people
have no access to a proper toilet, said the World Health Organization and
the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), warning that the lack of sanitation is
putting 2.6 billion people at risk of disease. "In the world today, there
are 15 million deaths caused by infectious diseases," said David Heyman,
WHO's assistant director general for health security and environment. "If we
had good sanitation today, and good water supplies, we could decrease that
immediately by two million -- those children who are dying unnecessarily
from diarrhea diseases." In a survey by the British Medical Journal of
11,000 health professionals, sanitation was cited as the most important
medical advancement since 1840, ahead of vaccines and anesthesia.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080320/ts_afp/undevelopmenthealthwater
[4] CDC says pandemic drills hone decision-making tools- CIDRAP (3/25/08)
Recent pandemic influenza response exercises have helped the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) improve its tools for making policy
decisions quickly, according to senior CDC officials. Before a large-scale
exercise conducted earlier this month, the agency set up a "planning cell"
of leaders who were insulated from the need to respond immediately to events
so they could think carefully about policy issues raised by the emergency,
officials said. In the exercise, on Mar 11 and 12, the new group made a
noticeable impact on the CDC's ability to make decisions, according to Dr.
Richard Besser, director of the CDC's Coordinating Office for Terrorism
Preparedness and Emergency Response. "One thing I was struck by was that we
did a much better job of reaching decisions quickly, and it's critical that
in a crisis we do that," Besser said in a recent interview about the results
of the exercise. The latest exercise—the fourth in a series that began in
January 2007—featured a simulated emerging US epidemic sparked by a traveler
from Southeast Asia infected with a mutated H5N1 virus. The March exercise
dealt with days 6, 7, and 8, during which cases climbed from 273 to well
above 300, with a 10% fatality rate. The exercise had states seeking
guidance on when to close schools and take other "community mitigation"
steps, while the CDC shipped antiviral drugs to the states and decided to
screen air travelers in an effort to slow the virus's spread to places like
Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/panflu/news/mar2508ex...
se-jw.html
[5] Guidelines for Epidemics: Who Gets a Ventilator?- The New York Times
(3/25/08)
New York State health officials have released a report on the use of
ventilators during a public health emergency. It is the result of a work
group formed in 2006 to plan for the possibility of an influenza pandemic.
Right now, there are enough ventilators to go around. But in an epidemic,
there could be a severe shortage of machines and, more important, doctors
and nurses to run them. At that point, the new report says, doctors and
hospitals would have no choice but to start taking some people off the
machines so that others could live. Removal “is absolutely the crux of the
problem,” said a lead author of the study, Dr. Tia Powell, who has spent
much of her career studying medical ethics. “There are people who might
survive who won’t get a chance at a ventilator if someone who is likely to
die even with a vent is using it.” Before an epidemic strikes, the report
says, the public should confront the issue to ensure that any such triage
decisions reflect community views, as well as ethical and clinical
standards.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/health/25vent.html?scp=1&sq=guidelines...
+epidemics&st=nyt
II. UPCOMING EVENTS
[1] The 13th Annual Public Health Symposium
When: Monday, April 7, 2008, 4:00 pm
Where: UMDNJ West Lecture Hall, RWJ Medical School, Piscataway, NJ
The 13th Annual Public Health Symposium will be held on Monday, April 7,
2008beginning at 4:00 pm at the UMDNJ West Lecture Hall, RWJ Medical
School onthe Piscataway Campus. The theme this year is ³Aging, Growth &
RenewalPublic Health in NJ in the 21st Century.² For registration
information andprogram details, please visit:
http://www.publichealthsymposium.org/Main.html
If you are interested in advertising your organization, becoming an
exhibitor,or submitting a poster, please see:
http://ophp.umdnj.edu/13_PHS.pdf
[2] Finding Your Inner Leader: An ³Aha² Conference to Reach, Rouse, and
Ready Future Public & Community Health Leaders
When: Friday, June 20, 2008
Where: Kingsborough Community College, Brooklyn, NY
³Finding Your Inner Leader An ŒAha!¹ Conference to Reach, Rouse, andReady
Future Public and Community Health Leaders² Co-Sponsored by:
KingsboroughCommunity College, Greater New York Society for Public Health
Education, and BrooklynBorough President's Office. For more conference
information and Call forAbstracts: http://www.kingsborough.edu/inner_leader
III. ANNOUNCEMENTS
[1] 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 for use by instructors in
any jurisdiction in the United States who provide public health preparedness
training to front-line practitioners. Materials include three lecture units
with PowerPoint slides, an interactive case study and a Course Manager’s
Guide. Notes for instructors and other supplemental information are also
included. To order a free CD-ROM, visit www2.cdc.gov/phlp/phel.asp.
[2] The National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the Incident Command
System (ICS): A Primer for Volunteers
The goal of this primer is to provide an overview of the National
IncidentManagement System, and an introduction to the Incident Command
System. This isan initial orientation for individuals who plan to volunteer
during anemergency or disaster. The course is designed to provide enough
information sothat volunteers will understand the standardized
organizational structure and communication system they are likelyto
encounter while participating in a response effort. Volunteer
organizationsmay require their volunteers to participate in additional
training on thesetopics. Participants are eligible to receive up to 0.1 CEU
or 1.0 (60 minute)contact hour for successful completion of training
including pre-test,post-test and evaluation. This project was developed by
the University ofMinnesota Center for Public Health Preparedness (UMNCPHP)
For access:
http://cpheo.sph.umn.edu/cpheo/umncphp/online/home.html#haz
[3] 1918 Influenza Information
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently released an online
resourcethat explains the circumstances and history of the 1918 influenza
pandemic.³The Great Pandemic: the United States in 1918-1919² is available
at http://1918.pandemicflu.gov/index.htm.
[4] IOM Releases Report on Public Health Preparedness Research Priorities
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a letter report entitled ³Research
Prioritiesin Emergency Preparedness and Response for Public Health Systems.²
Thecommittee and report were established in response to a request from
theCoordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response
(COTPER)of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The intent
was to delineatea set of near-term research priorities for emergency
preparedness and responsein public health systems relevant to the expertise
resident at schools ofpublic health and related fields. The committee
identified four priority areasfor research that represent specific important
aspects of systems of publichealth preparedness. The four areas are:
enhancing the usefulness of training;improving timely emergency
communications; creating and maintaining sustainableresponse systems; and
generating effectiveness criteria and metrics. The reportcan be downloaded
at: www.iom.edu/PHSRpriorities <http://www.iom.edu/PHSRpriorities>
[5] NJHA issues pandemic flu planning tool
The New Jersey Hospital Association has published the first installment of a
guidehospitals can use to develop or assess a pandemic flu response plan.
The10-module guide will address critical planning areas such as clinical
care,communication, ethics, finance, human resources, leadership, operations
andsupplies. The first module addresses supplies, logistics and support
services.Other modules will be posted online over the coming months. The
module can befound at:
http://www.njha.com/qualityinstitute/supplies.aspx
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