PUBLIC HEALTH PREPAREDNESS: MOBILIZING STATE BY STATE
Section 2: Snapshots of Public Health Preparedness in States and Directly Funded Localities: Georgia
Related Website: Georgia Department of Public Health
Georgia Responds to Wildfires
Better communication increases comprehensive and coordinated emergency response.
When severe wildfires struck
southeast Georgia in spring
2007, the public health district
office, which covers 16 counties
and 17 local public health departments, opened its
district operations center. From there, the district staff
coordinated with local health departments to respond to
the fire and deal with the smoky conditions which had
increased the public health risk for respiratory problems.
The district also helped health department staff give
protective masks and tetanus shots to first responders
working in wooded areas.
The Alachua County Health Department established a basic Incident Command System (ICS) structure for the measles outbreak. While all of the staff involved had been trained in ICS and most had used it in major hurricane deployments, this was their first use of the system in a biological event. Public health workers are now convinced that this training and the system itself provided a better framework to identify activities and outcomes, track completion of assignments, and allow for proper accounting of the associated costs.
The district public information officer informed the community, media, and local emergency response agencies about the wildfires through numerous public service announcements, press releases, and the district’s website. Nurse managers and staff went door-to-door to provide information about the smoke to residents living in more remote areas. Local “hangouts” were used to get information out to the public and the emergency management agency set up a hotline to address community questions and concerns. Town hall meetings also were held to inform the public and allow for questions.
Since 2001, communication between local agencies (first responders and others) and public health has increased significantly. Today, public health is included in emergency planning and response. As a result of increased partnership and communication, the counties affected by the wildfires have not seen an increase in respiratory problems. In addition, first responders are now protected from tetanus infection for future emergency response situations outdoors.
Snapshot of Public Health Preparedness
Below are activities conducted by Georgia in the area of public health preparedness. They support CDC preparedness goals in the areas of detection and reporting, control, and improvement; crosscutting activities help prepare for all stages of an event. These data are not comprehensive and do not cover all preparedness activities.
Disease Detection and Investigation
The sooner public health professionals can detect diseases or other health threats and investigate their causes and effects in the community, the more quickly they can minimize population exposure.
| Category of Activities | Specific Activity | Response |
|---|---|---|
| Detect & Report | Could receive and investigate urgent disease reports 24/7/3651 | Yes |
|
Electronic Reporting |
|
| Linked state and local health personnel to share information about disease outbreaks across state lines (through the CDC Epi-X system)3 | Yes | |
| Conducted year-round surveillance for seasonal influenza4 | Yes | |
* Telephone, fax, and electronic reporting are all viable options for urgent disease reporting, as long as the public health department has someone assigned to receive the reports 24/7/365. 1 CDC, DSLR; 2005 2 CDC, DSLR; 2006 3 CDC, Epi-X; 2007 4 HHS, OIG; 2007 |
||
Public Health Laboratories
Public health laboratories test and confirm agents that can threaten health. For example, advanced DNA “fingerprinting” techniques and subsequent reporting to the CDC database (PulseNet) are critical to recognize nationwide outbreaks from bacteria that can cause severe illness, such as E. coli O157:H7 and Listeria monocytogenes.
| Category of Activities | Specific Activity | Response |
|---|---|---|
| Detect & Report | Number of Georgia laboratories in the Laboratory Response Network1 | 7 |
| Rapidly identified E. coli O157:H7 using advanced DNA “fingerprinting” techniques (PFGE):2 | ||
|
13 | |
|
85% | |
| Rapidly identified Listeria monocytogenes using advanced DNA “fingerprinting” techniques (PFGE):2 | ||
|
8 |
|
|
25% | |
| Had a laboratory information management system that could create, send, and receive messages3 (8/05 – 8/06) | Yes | |
|
No | |
| Had a rapid method to send urgent messages to frontline laboratories that perform initial screening of clinical specimens3 (8/05 – 8/06) | Yes | |
| Crosscutting | Conducted bioterrorism exercise that met CDC criteria4 (8/05 – 8/06) | Yes |
| Conducted exercise to test chemical readiness that met CDC criteria4 (8/05 – 8/06) | No | |
1 CDC, DBPR; 2007 2 CDC, DSLR; 2007 3 APHL, Public Health Laboratory Issues in Brief: Bioterrorism Capacity; May 2007 4 CDC, DSLR; 2006 |
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Response
Planning provides a framework for how a public health department will respond during an emergency. The plans can be tested through external reviews, exercises, and real events. After-action reports assess what worked well during an exercise or real event and how the department can improve.
| Category of Activities | Specific Activity | Response |
|---|---|---|
| Control | Developed a public health response plan, including pandemic influenza response, crisis and emergency risk communication, and Strategic National Stockpile (SNS)1, 2 | Yes |
| Georgia SNS plan reviewed by CDC2 | Yes | |
|
24 | |
| Number of Georgia cities in the Cities Readiness Initiative3 | 1 | |
| Crosscutting | Developed roles and responsibilities for a multi-jurisdictional response (ICS) with:1 (8/05 – 8/06) | |
|
Yes | |
|
Yes | |
|
Yes | |
| Public health department staff participated in training to support cooperative agreement activities4 | Yes | |
| Public health laboratories conducted training for first responders5 (8/05 – 8/06) | Yes | |
| Activated public health emergency operations center as part of a drill, exercise, or real event*†6 (partial year, 9/06 – 2/07) | Yes | |
| Conducted a drill or exercise for key response partners to test communications when power and land lines were unavailable†6 (partial year, 9/06 – 2/07) | Yes | |
| Improve | Finalized at least one after-action report with an improvement plan following an exercise or real event†6 (partial year, 9/06 – 2/07) | Yes |
* Activation means rapidly staffing all eight core ICS functional roles in the public health emergency operations center with one person per position. This capability is critical to maintain in case of large-scale or complex incidents, even though not every incident requires full staffing of the ICS. † States were expected to perform these activities from 9/1/2006 to 8/30/2007. These data represent results from the first half of this period only. 1 CDC, DSLR; 2006 2 CDC, DSNS; 2007 3 CDC, DSNS CRI; 2007 4 CDC, DSLR; 1999-2005 5 APHL, Chemical Terrorism Preparedness; May 2007 6 CDC, DSLR; 2007 |
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