PHLP has released version three of the Public Health Emergency Law and Forensic
Epidemiology training materials on CD-ROM. Please click on the banner
above for more information.
Public Health Grand Rounds
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 Public
Health Law
Cross Sector Collaboration
Tools
The CDC / Bureau of Justice Assistance "Public Health and Law Enforcement
Emergency Preparedness Workgroup" has released two tools designed to improve
cross-sectoral and cross-jurisdictional preparedness for public health emergencies.
The first, “A Framework for Improving Cross-Sector Coordination for Emergency
Preparedness and Response: Action Steps for Public Health, Law Enforcement,
Corrections, and the Judiciary,” details major gaps and problems in cross-sectoral
and cross-jurisdictional emergency preparedness as well as some key opportunities
for addressing them. The second is a guide for developing a memorandum of
understanding for coordinated cross-sector implementation of community response
measures to contagious respiratory diseases such as influenza.
More information and available documents
Dismissal of School Children
in the Context of Pandemic Influenza
In response to national pandemic preparedness priorities, CDC commissioned
the independent Centers for Law and the Public's Health: A Collaborative
at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities to review the state-level legal
framework for reducing the density of school classrooms, with specific focus
on closure of schools, as a social distancing or social mitigation measure
to slow the spread of an H5N1 influenza pandemic or similar highly contagious
infectious disease. The Centers’ researchers restricted their scope of inquiry
to laws adopted at the state level and to laws that expressly address school
closure. (The study did not address any relevant laws adopted at the local
level, nor did it address any relevant general laws.) The Centers’ report
Legal Preparedness for School Closures in Response to Pandemic Influenza
and Other Emergencies presents a summary description of the express
state laws reviewed by the researchers as of late 2006, together with the
authors' observations about those laws (click
here to view the report). The report is also accessible on the federal
government's comprehensive pandemic influenza website (http://www.pandemicinfluenza.gov)
and on the Centers' website (http://www.publichealthlaw.net).
In the News
Getting ahead of the next big storm
Christian Science Monitor (09/08/08) Patrik Jonsson
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0908/p01s02-usgn.html
In the face of destruction wreaked by three devastating storm systems
-- Gustav, Hanna, and Ike -- the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) had the opportunity to test its new proactive response
philosophy. "Dynamic regrouping" uses clearly demarked lines of
communication to move resources along the storm paths so they will be
ready when they are most needed. Under the new response structure,
FEMA's planning team consists of one team concentrating on recovery
operations, and another working to anticipate needs ahead of a storm's
landfall. The response effort entails collaboration between the
military, civilian emergency professionals, and volunteers. The new
philosophy places increased emphasis on volunteer capabilities, giving
emergency officials a better sense than during previous disasters of who
the volunteers are and what they are trained to do.
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