Bioterrorism : Attack On Bioterrorism

In the Disaster in Franklin County simulation (Regents of the University of Minnesota [UMN], 2006), there were several key personnel in the incident command team. This concept is utilized in real disasters when the Public

In the event of a disaster, the community relies upon the public health personnel to evaluate the needs of the community, assess the available resources, provide reliable information, and coordinate health activities. It is essential that local health workers are trained professionals who are reassuring and organized to address health, social, cultural and material concerns of the community. Local health personnel coordinate social services, transportation, available health services, volunteers, outside assistance, public utilities and rescue work (HELP, 1989).

Communication is essential between health care facilities and the CDC. For example, the facilities experience an emergency and follow certain quarantine protocols and alert the local public health department and the CDC. The CDC organizes secure transmission tactics to merge and notify public health officials at local, state, and federal levels. The institute deploys scientific and logistical proficiency, personnel, and vital medical resources to the area of the emergency. The CDC (2012) explains the implementation of the essential medical assets for protection of communities in the state of an emergency:

CDC partners with the Center for Global Health, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the Office of the Director. This combination is referred to as the Center Institute and Office (CIO). Under the direction of the CIO, the organization is now able to be more alert and effective regarding health matters. Additionally, there are five affiliated offices which are connectedto the CIO; these are the Public Health Preparedness and Response, State and Local Support, Surveillance, Epidemiology and Laboratory Services, Noncommunicable Diseases, Injury and Environmental Health, and Infectious Diseases. The sub-set offices are able to perform CDC’s emergency procedures in accord to their range of proficiency offering intra-agency reinforcement and reserve distribution based on concerns and health threats(Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], n.d.).

I feel that strong communication not only within your own county but from county to state has a lot to do with how things are gone about and dealt with. You have to have strong communication one with such a large issue that might be at hand and plus look at the amount of lives that you are taking care of. Everyone that is or gets involved throughout such a large issue such as anthrax needs to be in on “the know” about every little single detail that there is. Strong communication is what gets everyone through it and in a manner that is not hectic or chaotic. Granted there are those people that are going to be beyond beside their self because of what is happening but there should also be those people out there helping them calm down and letting them know that everything is going to be ok. It is sad to say but big events such as 9/11 bring people together and closer and makes us realize that it isn’t just about us there are other people involved and we need to be

State and federal agencies are involved in this matter and taking it very seriously. They believe this is a critical health care emergency. Dr. Jasen Kunz of the National Center for Environmental Health and Dr. Claressa Lucas of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases will be leading a team of one hundred and fifty state officials to

The CHD Preparedness and Support Unit in the Bureau of Preparedness and Response (BPR) shares the Florida Department of Health (DOH) responsibility for ensuring the state’s public health and health care systems are prepared to respond to disasters and other public health emergencies. Therefore, the Unit is responsible for promoting and supporting preparedness activities at the local level by developing, evaluating and providing technical assistance for accomplishing the CHD Expectations; serving as liaison and point of contact for questions, concerns and needs related to CHD Preparedness, and by seeking and allocating funds locally according to cooperative agreements and statutory authority.

The Biocontainment Unit in Nebraska is the one of the nation 's biggest facilities. The Unit was created mainly to defend against bioterrorism, and Dr. Julie Gerberding of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched the construction of the Nebraska Biocontainment Patient Care Unit in 2005. That year, Nebraska was ranked 6th for the bioterrorism preparedness in the country. (Ebola treatment: why America 's largest biocontainment unit is in Nebraska, 2014) The Patient Care Unit was established by Nebraska Health and Human Services, Nebraska Medicine and University of Nebraska Medical Center. The University of Nebraska Medical Center has a 10-bed facility on the hospital 's seventh floor, and the unit is provided for people with extremely infectious and hazardous disease. (Nebraska Medicine)

Beginning in the early 1990’s, a series of governmental actions against biological warfare and bioterrorism were instituted, including the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control Act, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act, and the Defense Authorization Act. These acts were meant to either dissuade bioterrorists or boost the government’s power in defensive biological warfare research (Lanthrop). In April of 2000, the CDC published a guide, Biological and Chemical Terrorism: Strategic Plan for Preparedness and Response, which covered “planning, detection and surveillance, laboratory analysis, emergency response, and communications” (“CDC”). The APIC and CDC have co-written a guide for hospitals who come into contact with biological agents to follow (“CDC”). To sum up these guidebooks, it is important to look out for the following incidences: an irregular rapid increase in disease occurrences, an epidemic curve, an unusual pattern or time for a disease to thrive, clusters of patients from the same area, large numbers of fatal cases, simultaneous reports of animal deaths (Lanthrop).

Terrorism is an act of violence, usually done in the public sphere, which is used to incite fear in a population in order to coerce change in public opinion or a government’s position on an issue. In many parts of the world, groups wage war with their countries, either to separate from the government or to overthrow it entirely. Sometimes these people are treated unfairly by their government, and their struggles are justified. Other times, these groups use violence against both military and civilian targets, terrorizing innocent bystanders to get what they want—these groups are terrorists. Often, though, it is difficult to tell the difference.

The emergency events caused by infectious disease, natural or anthropogenic causes with the potential to overwhelm or otherwise disrupt routine local capacities due to their timing, scale or unpredictability should be communicated properly and routinely which requires rapid knowledge transfer and uptake (Khan et al., 2017, p. 2).

This research paper looks at the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS). The National Disaster Medical System is a federally coordinated system that helps build the nations medical response capability during major medical or public health incidents that states and local communities cannot handle by themselves (USDHHS, 2015). The research in this article draws upon the history of the establishment of NDMS, and how other hospital teams were first created. The focus of this paper is to explain the goals, mission statement, objectives, and funding of the NDMS. The final section of this paper will explain how the NDMS fits into Emergency Management at the state and local levels, and explain all the different teams in NDMS medical and health professionals can sign up for.

This includes the detection, epidemiologic assessment, and analysis of disease occurrence and spread, along with compiling health statistics including morbidity and mortality. The determination of risk factors associated with acquisition of disease and identification of persons at risk for disease are major goals of the assessment. Also making recommendations including isolation and quarantine and assuring prophylaxis. The Allegan County Health Department’s Health Officer (ACHO) with the guidance of the Allegan County Health Department’s Medical Director is responsible for making public health recommendations to individuals and groups to treat and/or prevent further spread of disease. These actions include, but are not limited to, recommendations involving isolation, quarantine and/or assuring medication for prophylaxis. This prophylaxis assurance is provided by direct assistance from the department and identification of additional resources outside the department to administer prophylaxis when the need exceeds departmental

The currently evolving H1N1 influenza and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) emphasize the concerning threat of naturally occurring contagion. The recent experience from hurricanes and extreme weather along with the attacks of September 11th 2001 have confirmed that the United States faces a true threat of mass casualty incidents. These threats have brought to light that U.S. Healthcare organizations must be prepared, resourced and organized to respond to hazard impacts. Hospital administration must ensure that their facilities are prepared to handle hazard impacts, an examination of healthcare system response has shown that when there is a disaster the initial response to any medical need will always be based upon locally available health organizations and that effective healthcare response during a disaster is complex (Emergency Management Principles and Practices for Healthcare Systems, Second Edition, 2010).

The first task for response personnel is to search for potential incident survivors. Fallout shelters need to be established to take in survivors of a nuclear, biological, or chemical attack from a weapon of mass destruction. Since most survivors would be directly exposed to a weapon of mass destruction, they will need to be sent to isolation quarters and they would require specialized medical personnel to handle those victims (Rose, 2015). The only victims that do not get the same treatment are those who are in prison. They receive medical attention within the facility because they are not allowed to be integrated with the public. All victims receive emergency care and protection from the National Guard as well as the local police departments (Rose, 2015).