Rapid Response Training: The Role of Public Health in a Multi-Agency Response to Avian Influenza in the United States
Overview: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) provided three day training courses adapted from the DHHS/CDC Guidance for State and Local Health Departments for Conducting Investigations of Human Illness Associated with Domestic Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Outbreaks in Animals. Training courses were provided in Washington DC; Denver, CO; and Atlanta, GA in early 2007. The trainings included 295 participants and facilitators and represented local and state health agencies, federal agencies including CDC and USDA, wildlife, agriculture, public health laboratories, public health veterinarians, nursing, and industry. Training was provided to representatives of all fifty states and Washington DC; several large cities including Seattle, Chicago, Houston, and New York City; Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Virgin Islands. All participants were individuals responsible for the identification, surveillance, or response of avian influenza (AI).
This three day training course, developed in conjunction with the North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness, provided guidance for state and local health departments in identifying and controlling human infections and illness associated with high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI). The training focused on the human health perspective during an avian influenza outbreak or case clusters and provided a mechanism through didactic lecture, reference materials, cases studies and tabletop exercises to facilitate discussion, interaction and planning with individuals within the same or neighboring states. Although the curriculum focused on human health, this training provided a context for officials working together with key agencies with different but related responsibilities during an AI outbreak.
Training Objectives:
- identify potential for human health problems associated with cases of HPAI,
- minimize the risk of spread or further human infection if human infection or disease is identified,
- provide guidance to individuals who are involved in the response to an HPAI cases and other HPAI exposure settings,
- protect against the risk of infection and disease and minimize the risk of viral reassortment (i.e., mixing of genes from human and avian influenza viruses) should an outbreak of HPAI occur,
- provide guidance for multi-disciplinary rapid response teams to discuss, plan, and to facilitate discussion between all state and local avian influenza rapid response teams, and
- provide funding for state and local health agencies to conduct their own rapid response training session(s).
The finalized course materials presented at the regional trainings are now available and provide a standardized curriculum to state and local public-health responders about how to identify and control human infections and illness associated with avian influenza A (H5N1). Users are encouraged to download and use these free materials including presentations, case studies, and tabletop exercises and adapt the materials to meet the training and preparedness needs of individual state health agencies.
Contact Information: For more information, please contact Jennifer Lemmings at 770-458-3811 or jlemmings@cste.org.
To download materials in PowerPoint or Word format, please click ‘save’ when prompted and save the file to the appropriate location on your computer
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