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News Release

HHS Sends 15 Public Health Service Officers To Support California Wildfire Relief Efforts

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson has deployed 15 U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) officers to assist the American Red Cross with the medical and mental health needs of Californians in the aftermath of the state's disastrous wildfires.

"These highly trained medical officers will provide needed medical assistance to Californians affected by the devastating wildfires," Secretary Thompson said. "In times like these, we are fortunate to have so many public health professionals ready at a moment's notice to meet the needs of our fellow Americans."

Ten Commissioned Corps Readiness Force (CCRF) nurses and five CCRF mental health providers are supporting Red Cross shelter operations in southern California as a result of the wildfires. These individuals are providing medical and mental health assessments, public health nursing services, and referrals to community medical and mental health resources to people who have been displaced from their homes.

"The U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps has a long and proud history of serving Americans," Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona said. "As we continue to build into a more flexible, mobile, stronger unit, we will be more able to meet the growing public health needs of our nation and world."

The CCRF is a team of active duty officers in the PHS who are mobilized in times of extraordinary need during disasters, other public health emergencies, or in response to domestic or international requests. The CCRF provides health leadership and expertise by enhancing and supporting the services of the PHS and other HHS divisions, other U.S. government departments or agencies, non-governmental agencies, and/or international respondents. The Surgeon General of the United States founded the CCRF in 1994 to improve HHS' ability to respond to public health emergencies.

CCRF is also called upon to assist in meeting the health and medical needs of those affected by federally declared disasters. Some examples include, in 1999, sending medical and environmental health personnel to North Carolina after Hurricane Floyd; in 2001, sending health care providers to Houston, Texas after Tropical Storm Allison; in 2002 supporting the Federated States of Micronesia after Typhoon Chata'an; and in 2003, CCRF providing support for Hurricane Isabel in seven states.

Currently, three CCRF nurses and one CCRF pharmacist are deployed to the Maniilaq Health Center in Kotzebue, Alaska (inside the Arctic Circle), to support nursing and pharmacy services due to a severe staffing shortage. Without this support, the facility would be forced to reduce services and helicopter patients 500 miles to Anchorage to receive care. Maniilaq provides medical services to approximately 10,000 native Alaskan people in Kotzebue and 10 outlying villages in an area the size of the state of Indiana. During this time of year, Kotzebue in only accessible by air.

CCRF dental officers are also currently staffing at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina. Marines who are returning from Iraq, as well as those deploying overseas, must all undergo a medical fitness for duty process -- and this includes a dental fitness for duty.

Finally there are two CCRF officers in Baghdad, working with the Iraq Ministry of Health to make recommendations to improve the medical, public health, and laboratory systems in the country.

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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.

Last Revised: November 4, 2003