CDC Report Released-- “Public Health Preparedness-- 2011 State-by-State Update on Laboratory Capabilities and Response Readiness Planning”
- John Cornelison
- September 23, 2011
Table of Contents
"Public Health Preparedness: 2011 State-by-State Update on Laboratory Capabilities and Response Readiness Planning," is the latest report by the CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response that evaluates the nation’s ability to respond to public health emergencies such as disease outbreaks and natural disasters. This report focuses on public health laboratories, which are critical for identifying and understanding health threats and disease outbreaks, and response readiness planning, which enables communities to efficiently distribute medicines and other supplies received from CDC’s Strategic National Stockpile during a public health emergency. The report compares recent data to past data indicating national improvements in these two preparedness capabilities.
The CDC’s description of this report can be found at: http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/pubs-links/2011/
For CDC’s guidance on “Coping With a Disaster or Traumatic Event”, see http://emergency.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/
The DHS recently released the FY 2012 guidance and application kits for seven grant programs that support the National Preparedness Goal. Grants total more than $1.3 billion, a reduction of nearly $1 billion from FY 2011 and $1.5 billion below the President Obama’s FY 2012 request. The DHS preparedness grants give priority this year to applicants in the nation’s highest-risk areas, including urban areas, with a focus on terrorism prevention. “Given the significant reduction in grant funding this year, we are maximizing limited grant dollars by setting clear priorities and focusing on the areas that face the greatest risk,” DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement.