Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116415

Andrew Bernstein, MD, MPH, Health Officer, Harford County Health Department, 119 Hays Street, Bel Air, MD 21014, Reed Correll, Bioterrorism Coordinator, Harford County Health Department, 119 Hays Street, Bel Air, MD 21014, (410) 638-8476, rcorrell@dhmh.state.md.us, Ruth Maiorana, BS, Director, Health Education & Planning Division, Harford County Health Department, 119 Hays Street, Bel Air, MD 21014, and Patricia Okin, BS, RN, Communicable Disease Program Supervisor, Harford County Health Department, 119 Hays Street, Bel Air, MD 21014.

Traditional flu clinics provide unique opportunities for local health departments to practice Bioterrorism response plans. The Harford County Health Department, servicing a large suburban county in Maryland's Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan area, responded to the 2004-2005 influenza vaccine shortage and resulting crisis by utilizing the National Incident Management System (NIMS) to successfully distribute over 10,000 vaccinations in less than two months. With increased media attention and community demand for vaccine, the Department had to quickly recruit both traditional (i.e. Nurses) and non-traditional (i.e. addictions counselors, social workers, secretaries, health educators, sanitarians) staff and community partners to sufficiently and effectively mobilize a local response to the crisis. The Department's experiences with rapid NIMS training of staff, handling obstacles to integration, coordination of public health response with local first responders, distribution of vaccinations in sustained large scale clinics, public health application of triage principles, and coordination of a countywide response with private providers, will be described. Prior to these exercises, staff reported an unfamiliarity with the Incident Command Structure (ICS) and the Department's responsibilities in a Bioterrorism event. Following the flu clinics, staff reported a better understanding of their roles, the value of NIMS, and the Department's position within the overall countywide response to a WMD or natural disaster event. While unforseen challenges sometimes threatened the clinic success, the final outcomes of the integrated events included extremely high customer satisfaction, absence of chaos, improved partnerships with other first responders, strengthened employee morale, and a tested emergency response plan.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the learner in this session will be able to

• Recognize the value of using traditional public health practices as opportunities to apply bioterrorism response plans.
• Identify practices that could be implemented using emergency response strategies.
• Discuss practical tools and strategies to overcome real barriers to integration of local regional response plans with local public health.

Keywords: Bioterrorism, Communicable Disease

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation