Use of incident command system in managing a vaccine preventable disease

In May 2007, a local Florida county health department responded to its first measles outbreak in 20 years that occurred within an unvaccinated religious group. While the local Health Department has a skilled epidemiology department, and clinical care personnel, the level of detail necessary to manage the infectiousness of measles requires multifaceted diligence for the duration of the outbreak. The Incident Command System (ICS) was implemented to manage the complexities of this outbreak

A basic ICS structure was established, with emphasis on the Plans and Operations sections. Logistics and Finance were engaged to support and track the actual costs of this event. The management of a vaccine preventable disease contains four major elements:

•Surveillance of the primary care medical community

•Investigations for unreported cases

•Multiple Immunization clinics

•Establishing an ongoing “rash room” entrance for diagnosis and reduce exposure to the Health Department general population.

An event such as this generates media, and the PIO functions were established through a Joint Information Center (JIC) with the Health Department and the university system. The net result was no further cases occurring and the event considered closed in June.

While many of the staff involved had used ICS in major hurricane deployments, this was their first use in a biological event. All are now convinced that their training and the system itself provided both a better framework to identify activities and outcomes, track completion of assignments, and allow for proper accounting of the associated event costs.