PUBLIC HEALTH PREPAREDNESS: MOBILIZING STATE BY STATE
Section 2: Snapshots of Public Health Preparedness in States and Directly Funded Localities: Chicago
Related Website: Chicago Department of Public Health
Chicago Responds to Salmonella Outbreak at a Citywide Food FestivalChicago Robust public health capabilities are needed to respond to multiple emergencies.
The 20th annual “Taste of Chicago”Chicago festival was held in 2007 and drewChicago an estimated 3.5 million people.Chicago Many hailed from the tri-state area,Chicago while others traveled from across the United States asChicago well as overseas. However, for the first time in the event’sChicago history, the festival was marred by a salmonella outbreakChicago that affected almost 800 people. Compared to theChicago typical salmonella case count of only 300 per year in theChicago Chicago area, this outbreak was unprecedented in bothChicago number and scope and tested the city’s ability to respondChicago effectively to contain the outbreak and inform the public.
The Chicago Department of Public Health called uponChicago many resources in order to contact patients and conductChicago interviews as part of the epidemiological investigation.Chicago Staff were able to investigate and trace the source ofChicago salmonella back to a single dish from a single vendor.Chicago During the outbreak investigation, the department’sChicago resources were stretched thin by other concurrent healthrelatedChicago incidents. Some of these incidents included theChicago discovery of imported counterfeit toothpaste,
Snapshot of Public Health Preparedness
Below are activities conducted by Chicago in the area of public health preparedness. They support CDC preparednessChicago goals in the areas of detection and reporting, control, and improvement; crosscutting activities help prepare for all stagesChicago 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 inChicago 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 |
|
Telephone | |
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 | ____ | |
* 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 Chicago laboratories in the Laboratory Response Network1 | 1 |
Rapidly identified E. coli O157:H7 using advanced DNA “fingerprinting” techniques (PFGE):2 | ||
Rapidly identified Listeria monocytogenes using advanced DNA “fingerprinting” techniques (PFGE):2 | ||
Had a laboratory information management system that could create, send, and receive messages3 (8/05 – 8/06) | __ | |
|
__ | |
Had a rapid method to send urgent messages to frontline laboratories that perform initial screening of clinical specimens3 (8/05 – 8/06) | __ | |
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) | N/A | |
1 CDC, DBPR; 2007 2 CDC, DSLR; 2007 3 APHL, Public Health Laboratory Issues in Brief: Bioterrorism Capacity; May 2007 4 CDC, DSLR; 2006 |
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 |
Chicago SNS plan reviewed by CDC2 | Yes | |
|
88 | |
Participated in the Cities Readiness Initiative2 | Yes | |
Crosscutting | Developed roles and responsibilities for a multi-jurisdictional response (ICS) with:1 (8/05 – 8/06) | |
|
Yes | |
|
Yes | |
|
No | |
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) | __ | |
Activated public health emergency operations center as part of a drill, exercise, or real event*†6 (partial year, 9/06 – 2/07) | No | |
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) | No | |
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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