Archived
June, 2007 |
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Hispanic Health Program
BIOTERRORISM
WHAT IS THE PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEM?
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The
risk of a terrorism attack against US citizens is now a fact of life. |
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Response to terrorism events requires rapid deployment of limited
public health resources. |
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The
nation's public health infrastructure to quickly detect and rapidly
respond to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosive
large-scale terrorism event should continue to be enhanced. |
WHAT HAS CDC
ACCOMPLISHED?
CDC
has established a terrorism preparedness program to ensure the
development and enhancement of federal, state, and local capacity to
address potential terrorism threats. The program integrates planning and
evaluation to facilitate the development and enhancement of core
capacities including preparedness and response, epidemiology and
surveillance, chemical and biological laboratory analysis capabilities,
communications systems, risk communications, training, and the
distribution of emergency pharmaceuticals and medical equipment. In
addition, CDC maintains a cooperative agreement program in excess of one
billion dollars for state and selected local public health
jurisdictions.
Example of program in action: |
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Fiscal
Year 2001-02 and 2003 CDC Bioterrorism Program Funding to U.S. States
and Territories with some of the Largest Concentrations of Hispanic
Residents
STATE/TERRITORY* |
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AMOUNT |
AMOUNT |
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2001-02 |
2003 |
California1 |
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85,407,416 |
99,711,714 |
Florida |
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40,581,081 |
47,452,596 |
Illinois2 |
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37,648,693 |
42,462,311 |
New York3 |
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52,246,707 |
59,481,699 |
Texas |
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51,421,771 |
60,410,457 |
Puerto Rico* |
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13,478,992 |
14,952,061 |
1) includes Los Angeles County. (2) includes Chicago. (3)
Includes New York City. |
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In
response to its large Hispanic audience, CDC has added a link to its
bioterrorism website for Spanish-speaking users:
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/es/. Special provisions have been made to translate patient medication and
disease information sheets into several languages including Spanish for
immediate use following a bioterrorism event.
WHAT ARE THE NEXT
STEPS?
CDC will
continue to enhance public health infrastructure for bioterrorism
preparedness and develop response capacity working with its public
health partners and community organizations. It will be important to
identify new focus areas that could enhance the ability to respond to
all types of public health emergencies and to continue to work on making
the bioterrorism resources available to all people, but especially
Hispanics, the fastest growing population group in the country.
For more information, contact the CDC
Bioterrorism Program, Mailstop C18, 1600
Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30333: (404)
639-0784:
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/. |
Back to the Hispanic/Latino Populations Page
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