Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
the medical center in order to avoid the risk of infecting other patients or
caregivers. The public will need to know where this area is so as to avoid
it, and the police will be needed to not only help set it up in some cases,
but also to provide protection.
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EMS (local and regional)
It is not unlikely that once word is released of this case, a sort of panic
will fall over the population in your jurisdiction, and anyone who feels they
are suffering from symptoms similar to those described for Avian Influenza
may start calling for emergency assistance. The local and regional EMS units
have to be put on alert for this possibility, both to quickly respond in the cor-
rect fashion, and also to have time to call in reinforcements and volunteers
if necessary if the volume of requests for assistance proves to be tremendous.
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Centers for Disease Control
Obviously, the CDC will want to know of these developments, and
they will be the foremost experts in what steps the PHO and agency
should take next in dealing with the patient, caregivers, and the public.
They will also quickly dispatch experts into the locality and may well take
the lead on this side of things. This will leave the PHO with more of the
coordination and support response.
In addition, experts from the CDC can also advise, based on the situ-
ation, if any kind of PPE is necessary and who should have it. You will
need to know this so that you understand if PPE is readily available in
your jurisdiction, or if you are going to need to call on health agencies in
neighboring jurisdictions to provide resources.
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SNS Personnel
While you have received a report that there are medicines and sup-
plies available for the one case that you are aware of, will your locality be
ready if you suddenly discover in the next few hours that there are four
cases? Eight? Twenty? Officials from the SNS must be called on immedi-
ately. The SNS can have supplies, medicines, surgical and medical equip-
ment, and other such needs delivered to your locality within 12 hours,
with the help of state officials.
So, three hours have now passed. You have made all the contacts listed above,
because the training you and your staff have gone through in the Public Health
agency required opening lines of communications with all these contacts. Because
they expected to hear from you in this situation, they are not getting their news
from the TV or radio, but from those involved in the coordinated response effort
that is operating efficiently and effectively to this point.
In the next three hours, the situation continues to unfold. The original patient has
been successfully moved to a different facility and quarantined. The PIO has taken to
the TV and radio airwaves with instructions for the population, both those who feel
that they may have symptoms and want assistance and those who do not but want
