Compare Your Thoughts with Those from National Experts on...Pandemic Preparedness & Response

Public health systems will always have to address preparedness for contingencies well beyond the well publicized H1N1 (swine flu), H5N1 (avian flu), and SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreaks – three somewhat similar diseases that in recent years have led to improved and more thorough pandemic-influenza planning efforts both within the United States and overseas.  U.S. health officials have therefore become very attuned to threats from such historic diseases as smallpox, plague, anthrax, and a host of others more exotic and/or not quite as well known.

The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) is one healthcare association that has become increasingly concerned over the capacity of the nation’s health system, both public and private, for preparing and planning for various pandemic threats.  A pandemic influenza plan may not be enough, though.  Pandemic planning may, in fact, have to assume more of an all-hazards cast – which would be a definite capacity challenge.  Policy approaches are variously emphasizing one end or the other of the local-state-federal government spectrum, ranging from the federal-centric to the individual household, or YOYO (“You’re on your own”), to any and all points in between.

ASTHO represents state health officials at the center of the public health enterprise – i.e., between the federal government and local communities. “Our partners are horizontal across the country and vertical across all levels of the public and private sectors.  Our goal is to strengthen a permanent and robust public health system by changing our focus from deficits and problem areas to our collective strengths as a public health system – federal, state, and local.  This will change how we function in public health and strengthen our relationships with each other.” So said Paul E. Jarris, M.D., MBA, ASTHO executive director.  “And these [efforts],” he adds, “will require sustaining current relationships and brokering new ones to create a comprehensive approach to public health preparedness and response.”

Keeping these issues and concerns in mind, DomPrep asked the DomPrep40 to consider a number of issues related to pandemic preparedness and response.  To that end, Dr. Jarris and his ASTHO staff drafted the following DomPrep40 survey.

Key Findings:  The DomPrep40 is in a three-way split over which level of government has or should have the primary responsibility for pandemic flu planning and response.  Nonetheless, they are virtually unanimous in their belief that the state and local levels of government lack the resources needed to respond to emerging infections.

These findings are an indication of a possible fault line in current pandemic planning assumptions that may have to be addressed in the very near future.

Here are the full survey results

Over three quarters favor federal funding, going beyond preparedness for specific pandemic threats to cover all hazards.