Regional Health and Public Health Preparedness for Nuclear Terrorism: Optimizing Survival in a Low Probability/High Consequence Disaster The United States remains unprepared to cope with the possibility of an attack on a major city by terrorists capable of acquiring and detonating an improvised nuclear device. Long-held anxieties about the non-survivability of nuclear war promulgated during the intense U.S.—Soviet arms race from the late 1940s through the 1980s, and reluctance to consider low … Continue reading “Regional Health and Public Health Preparedness for Nuclear Terrorism: Optimizing Survival in a Low Probability/High Consequence Disaster” Learn More
Mitigating absenteeism in hospital workers during a pandemic Objectives: An influenza pandemic, as with any disaster involving contagion or contamination, has the potential to influence the number of health care employees who will report for duty. Our project assessed the uptake of proposed interventions to mitigate absenteeism in hospital workers during a pandemic. Methods: Focus groups were followed by an Internet-based survey of … Continue reading “Mitigating absenteeism in hospital workers during a pandemic” Learn More
Pediatric Emergency Preparedness for Natural Disasters, Terrorism, and Public Health Emergencies: A National Consensus Conference: 2009 Update This is the third consensus document in an ongoing process to convene experts from the multiple disciplines that are involved in the planning for children affected by disasters. Learn More
Biological Terrorism In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the subsequent mail-borne anthrax attack of October 2001, it has become dear that health care providers may be called upon to respond to victims of terrorism. Biological terrorism (BT), in particular, involves the use of virulent agents with the intent to cause mass casualties and/or … Continue reading “Biological Terrorism” Learn More
Of peppers and preparedness What can a chili pepper teach us about disaster preparedness? In June, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began issuing advisories about a foodborne salmonella outbreak that was detected in the United States. At the end of August, the agencies announced with little fanfare that the … Continue reading “Of peppers and preparedness” Learn More
Public Health Disaster Research: Surveying the Field, Defining its Future Disaster medicine and public health preparedness are commonly perceived as subfields of the larger fields of medicine and public health rather than being recognized as an emerging academic field embracing all of the disciplines that contribute to effective disaster response. As such, they serve as appropriate subjects for multidisciplinary work in the social sciences, whether … Continue reading “Public Health Disaster Research: Surveying the Field, Defining its Future” Learn More
Safer Schools in an Age of Mass Violence: Back to the Basics of Public Health Schools in the US are by and large safe environments where millions of our children are secure and thrive. Outbreaks of fatal violence like the recent shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) are, fortunately, rare. In fact, the odds of a student losing his or her life to homicide are 50 … Continue reading “Safer Schools in an Age of Mass Violence: Back to the Basics of Public Health” Learn More
Interventions to Mitigate the Reduced Ability and Willingness to Work of Health Care Workers During a Pandemic Influenza Public Health Emergency Several widely publicized articles were released in the past two years which suggest that health care and public health employees may be unable or unwilling to report to work during a public health emergency involving contagion or contamination such as pandemic influenza, SARS, smallpox, or a terrorist attack using disease or radiation: A 2006 study … Continue reading “Interventions to Mitigate the Reduced Ability and Willingness to Work of Health Care Workers During a Pandemic Influenza Public Health Emergency” Learn More
Children and Megadisasters: Lessons Learned in the New Millennium Hurricane Katrina is America’s most recent encounter with a megadisaster. But what made it a megadisaster instead of just another category 3 hurricane of the type that seasonally exists in the Gulf of Mexico? Katrina was not the largest or strongest hurricane to strike the United States mainland in the recent past, but its effects … Continue reading “Children and Megadisasters: Lessons Learned in the New Millennium” Learn More
