The NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan’s online toolkit has a new page as of today.  The Pandemic Planning page is located here:  http://nnlm.gov/ep/pandemic-planning/. 

The page contains links to the CDC’s H1N1 site as well as to several Word documents that contain information about pandemic planning, some service continuity issues that may need to be addressed, and a sample of a table-top exercise that can be used to assist in pandemic planning.

According to Susan Yowell, Project Assistant, NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan,”The current focus of the content of the page is on academic health sciences libraries, but we believe the content can be adapted to suit the needs of other types of libraries or institutions.  We will continue to develop the page, adding relevant content as it emerges.”

*Special thanks to Susan Yowell, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, Charlottesville, VA, for this information.

The Disaster Information Management Resource Center (as a part of NLM’s Specialized Information Services Division) has complied a portal of more than fifteen glossaries to provide a source of standard and concise disaster terminology for all members of the disaster risk reduction and emergency management community.

The glossaries cover topics including: climate and weather; disaster medicine; earthquakes; radiation; storms, hurricanes, and floods; and more. These glossaries were created by a variety of academic and government institutions, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, and George Washington University.

The website also has links to lists of MeSH terms used in indexing disaster-related articles.

To access the page directly, go to http://disaster.nlm.nih.gov/dimrc/glossaries.html .

The page may also be accessed via the SIS webpage (http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/), clicking on the link to “Disaster Information Management Resource Center”, and then clicking on “Disaster Glossaries”.

Although first announced in April of this year, this resource bears mentioning again at the beginning of a new school year and the approach of National Preparedness Month.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Ad Council have joined with Discovery Education to announce Ready Classroom, an online educational program. Ready Classroom will provide elementary and middle school teachers with resources to integrate natural disaster preparedness information into their curriculum. The program is an extension of Ready Kids, a nationwide effort designed to encourage children and families to take action and prepare for emergencies.

This online resource, www.discoveryeducation.com/readyclassroom, targets grades K - 8 and provides teachers with activities, lesson plans and multimedia tools that teach students how natural disasters develop and inspires them to build their own emergency preparedness plans with their families. The complete news release can be found at http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=47960 .

The American Public Health Association urges all Americans to “Get a Kit, Make a Plan, Be Informed and Get Involved.” National Get Ready Day is September 15, 2009, to coincide with National Preparedness Month.

On Thursday, July 16, 2009, MedlinePlus® news published a story from Reuters Health with these three key points:

1.) H1N1 virus has spread more quickly than other pandemics;

2.) The World Health Organization (WHO) states it is ”pointless” to count individual cases;

3.) Countries should track deaths, unusual patterns

WHO has said that the current H1N1 pandemic is the “fastest-moving pandemic ever”, and that it is now virtually “pointless” to try to count every case. The WHO Briefing note (issued July 16) went on to say that “further spread of the pandemic, within affected countries and to new countries, is considered inevitable.”  Influenza viruses of past pandemics have required six months or more to spread as widely as the new H1N1 virus has spread in less than six weeks.

(more…)

The Pan American Health Organization has announced the inauguration of the @influenza e-list for the dissemination and exchange of information about Influenza in the Americas and in the world.  Anyone who is interested in the issues relevant to influenza may subscribe to this listserv. Any member can send information to be published in the list, subject to approval by the moderator based on currency, quality, and relevance. Messages may be submitted in English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese; information will be sent to the list in the language of origin.

To subscribe to the listserv, go to: http://listserv.paho.org/archives/influenza.html

June 1 marked the beginning of the 2009 hurricane season. For those of us living in the Gulf Coast region, little reminder is needed regarding the value of preparing for a potential hurricane before it actually poses a threat. However, preparing ahead of time for other emergency situations and potential disasters (including tornados, floods, extreme heat, and earthquakes) is a valuable practice no matter where you may reside. NN/LM SCR, CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), and other agencies offer many resources to help individuals, families, and communities stay safe and healthy.

Please see the following websites for more information on emergency preparedness:

NN/LM SCR Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Recovery: http://nnlm.gov/scr/services/prepare.html

CDC Emergency Preparedness and Response - Natural Disasters & Severe Weather:  http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/ (This site is available in Chinese, French, German, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Spanish, and Vietnamese.)

CDC Emergency Preparedness and Response - Hurricanes:  http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/hurricanes/ (This site is available in Spanish, French, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, German, and Portuguese, and also contains videos in American Sign Language.)

CDC Hurricane Readiness: Emergency Supplies You Will Need: http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/hurricanes/supplies.asp (This site is available in Spanish, French, and Vietnamese.)

AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) - Public Health Emergency Preparedness: http://www.ahrq.gov/prep/

The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Robert M. Bird Health Sciences Library and the Metropolitan Library System have been selected for a pilot program sponsored by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and NN/LM. The program, entitled “Community Day,” is designed to assist libraries in becoming active partners in their community’s emergency preparedness, response and recovery planning. Community Day will make libraries part of the nationwide effort encouraging all Americans to take simple steps in preparing for possible emergencies in their homes, businesses, schools and communities.

Title: From Band-Aids to Twisters: Enhancing Community and Personal Preparedness
Lead Library: University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Robert M. Bird Health Sciences Library, Oklahoma City
Partner Library: Metropolitan Library System, Oklahoma City
Project Manager: Shari Clifton

Since there were only three sites selected nationwide, the NN/LM SCR is proud that libraries in Oklahoma will be participating in this important project.

On February 20, 2009, Florida State University held “Public Libraries and Hurricane Response: Eppes Panel Discussion” on Public Librarians’ Response to Hurricanes: Lessons, Issues and Strategies.  Speaking at the panel discussion were: Rebecca Hamilton, State Librarian of Louisiana; Rebecca Mitchell, Director, Alabama Public Library Service; Judith Ring, Director, State Library and Archives of Florida; Peggy Rudd, Director and Librarian, Texas State Library and Archives Commission; MaryEllin Santiago, Manager, Southeastern Library Network’s (SOLINET) Gulf Coast Libraries Project; and Sharman B. Smith, Executive Director, Mississippi Library Commission.

Topics discussed were:

• Lessons from recent hurricanes in Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida
• Roles of public libraries in hurricane preparedness
• Rebuilding libraries and community infrastructure
• Local and state politics in hurricane preparedness and response
• Integrating public library preparedness and response with the local community
• Coordinating public library response with other emergency management services
• The role of the state library in supporting and assisting communities and public libraries
• Strategies for how public libraries can be better prepared to assist their community

These presentations are archived on the Florida State University website: http://www.ii.fsu.edu/hurricanes/archive.html

The Radiation Event Medical Management System (REMM) can now be downloaded to mobile devices (Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Palm) with selected key files from the full online version.

REMM provides:

• Guidance for health care providers, primarily physicians, about clinical diagnosis and treatment during mass casualty radiological/nuclear (rad/nuc) events.
• Just-in-time, evidence-based, usable information with sufficient background and context to make complex issues understandable to those without formal radiation medicine expertise.
• Web-based information that is also downloadable in advance, so that it would be available during an event if the internet is not accessible.

Google.org’s Flu Trends (http://www.google.org/flutrends/) tracks when and where questions about flu symptoms are asked all over the country.  They have discovered that a large number of flu-related searches from a particular region may be estimating an outbreak of the flu in that region. In fact, last year Google Flu Trends estimated flu levels one to two weeks earlier than the CDC reported them.

The New York Times: “Google Uses Searches to Track Flu’s Spread”

Google.org: “How does this work?“