PHS Commissioned Corps Deploys Public Health Professionals to Provide Hurricane Relief

(PRWEB) October 1, 2004 -- In the wake of the Hurricane's Frances, Charley, Ivan, and Jeanne, the United States Public Health Service (PHS) Commissioned Corps has deployed some 490 officers to provide support to the citizens of Florida and Alabama. Officers from every category of the Service were utilized to meet any and every challenge encountered as a result of the devastation left behind by the deadly hurricanes - blamed for the deaths of close to 100 U.S. citizens. The PHS Commissioned Corps is a component of the Department and Health and Human Services (DHHS) and one of the seven uniformed services.

The magnitude of the crisis response is the largest for the Commissioned Corps since the terrorist attacks of 2001. On short notice, the Corps sent four dentists, three dieticians, twenty-three engineers, twenty-seven environmental health officers, seventy-seven health services officers, two hundred sixty-four nurses, thirty-nine pharmacists, twenty-five physicians, ten therapist, and two veterinarians to the Gulf Coast. Responders provided relief for victims, supported local health facilities, and led units to stabilize building structures and to provide first aide to injured citizens.

Most of the officers will focus on the areas of Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, two of the areas hardest hit by the hurricanes.

Officers came from all agencies and divisions of DHHS including the Food and Drug Administration; the National Institutes of Health; the Indian Health Service; the Office of the Secretary; the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry; the Program Support Center; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; the Health Services and Resource Administration; and the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research. Officers were also deployed from the Department of Agriculture; the Department of Homeland Security; the Bureau of Prisons; and the National Park Service.

This deployment is currently on-going and additional Corps officers will be deployed at the command of the leader of the day-to-day operations of the Commissioned Corps, Surgeon General, VADM Richard Carmona. 

The Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service is a uniformed service comprised of 6,000 active duty and 2,500 inactive reserve highly-trained and mobile public health professionals who carry out programs to promote the health of the nation, understand and prevent disease and injury, assure safe and effective drugs and medical devices, deliver health services to federal beneficiaries, and furnish health expertise in time of war or other national or international emergencies. To meet and overcome the ever-evolving threats of terrorism, the Commissioned Corps is currently transforming to become a more mobile and deployable force, designed to respond to national and international public health crises. To find out more information about the PHS Commissioned Corps, you may visit http://www.usphs.gov/ .

USPHS Veterinary Officers Deployed

Commander Meta Timmons, a veterinary officer normally assigned to the PHS Commissioned Corps Training Academy in the Office of the Surgeon General, was deployed to the FEMA National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) in Washington, DC as a Liaison Officer. In that capacity, she represented Emergency Support Function #8 (ESF#8).  ESF#8 is that portion of the National Response Plan that provides public health and medical expertise for a response.  The NEOC is a large body of representatives from each of the ESFs which act as an information resource to Federal decision-makers, act as a liaison between the Department of Health and Human Services and FEMA, and provide visibility of all response issues that may develop into a public health and medical issue.  

Captain Nancy Pate, veterinary officer normally assigned to the EPA in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, was deployed  in advance of Hurricane Frances to the FEMA Region IV Regional Operations Center (ROC)in Atlanta, Georgia as a Liaison Officer. The ROC is the facility established at FEMA Regional Offices in response to (or in anticipation of) an event that may require Federal  assistance under the Federal Response Plan.

Generally, when a FEMA District  Field Office can be set up closer to the site of the disaster, the ROC closes down. However, given the earlier arrival of Hurricane Charlie, the intensity of Hurricane Frances, and the imminent arrival of Hurricane Ivan the Terrible, a District Field Office could not be made operational, so command and control remained in the ROC.

Capt. Pate was assigned to Emergency Support  Function (ESF) 8 to coordinate Health and Medical Services. She interacted with state and local public health and medical officials, field commanders, deployed field units, and the Health and Human Services' Secretary's Command Center.  Her responsibilities included turning public health and medical needs into a Mission Assignments  that were sent to HHS to be addressed with appropriate resources. She coordinated Action Request Forms (ARF) between the Florida State Emergency Operation Center  (EOC) and the Secretary's Operation Center (SOC). She obtained cost estimates and facilitated FEMA preparation of Mission Assignments (MA). The FEMA Mission Assignments fund and mobilize the resources. For the most part, the MA's dealt primarily with medical care and shelter for special needs people. She prepared "Situation Reports" as required and attended the regularly scheduled briefings to respond to ESF-8 activity inquiries. In addition, she coordinated interagency sub-tasks with other ESF's and the Department of Defense. As a Red Cross volunteer herself, she also enjoyed working with ESF-6 (Mass Care) and with the other volunteer agencies at the ROC. She also has close ties with VMAT-3 and was pleased to be able to assist on a few animal related issues and USDA Action Request Forms while serving at the ROC. 

The officers' broad education and background in veterinary medicine and animal health was helpful to their deployment roles..  This is particularly true for hurricane disasters that often create multiple issues related to animals, such as what to do with household pets when the animal owner must move to a shelter, vector control problems with domestic animals and huge hatches of mosquitoes that might be carrying equine encephalitis or West Nile, relocation of domestic large animals, disposal of large numbers of domestic large animal carcasses after flooding, large numbers of wild animal deaths, and displacement of wild animals into homes and urban areas - such as snakes in flooded basements. 

PHS Veterinarians have also been requested for a possible public health humanitarian assistance mission to Haiti, although this group has not yet deployed.