TUESDAY, Dec. 6, 2005 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. government and most of the states are not prepared to protect the public's health in mass emergencies or acts of bioterrorism.
That's the grim conclusion of Trust for America's Health third annual report, "Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health from Disease, Disasters, and Bioterrorism," which was released Tuesday.
In the report, the federal government received a grade of D+ for post-9/11 public health emergency preparedness. And more than half the states got a score of five or less out of 10 possible points for key indicators of health emergency preparedness, such as capabilities to test for chemical and biological threats and hospital surge capacity to care for patients in a mass emergency, according to a prepared statement released by the non-profit health advocacy organization.
"We need to stop shrugging our shoulders and start rolling up our sleeves," said Lowell Weicker Jr., the organization's president and former U.S. senator and governor of Connecticut. "The response to Hurricane Katrina was a sharp indictment of America's emergency response capabilities. This report provides further evidence of the major gap between response 'plans' and 'realities.' We need to get real in our planning for health emergencies."
Grading of the federal government's performance was based on a survey of 20 leading public health experts, who evaluated 12 different aspects of health emergency preparedness. Among the results:
- The Strategic National Stockpile got a C+ grade.
- Federal initiatives including pandemic flu planning, Cities Readiness Initiative and BioSurveillance activities got C- grades.
- The federal health response to Hurricane Katrina got a grade of D.
- The Smallpox Vaccination Initiative received a D-.
In the assessment of states, Delaware, South Carolina and Virginia scored the highest, achieving eight of 10 possible indicators. Alabama, Alaska, Iowa and New Hampshire scored the lowest, achieving only two indicators.
The report noted that only 10 state public-health laboratories have adequate chemical terrorism response capabilities; more than one fourth of the states do not have sufficient bioterrorism laboratory response capabilities; and almost half the states do not use national standards to track disease outbreak information.
The report was released a day after state and homeland security officials met in Washington, D.C., to discuss plans for dealing with an avian flu pandemic.
State officials expressed concern at the meeting about the country's ability to cope with the huge demand for vaccine that would occur during a pandemic, the Associated Press reported.
State officials noted that doctors across the United States are currently having a difficult time securing enough regular flu vaccine for their patients. Vaccine demand during a flu pandemic would be far greater than that, they said.
The U.S. federal government estimates that as many as 90 million people would become ill during a flu pandemic, the AP reported.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said the federal government hopes to solve vaccine-distribution problems by producing massive quantities of vaccine.
More information
You can read the report and find more on individual states at Trust for America's Health.
