USA Today (12/10, Frank) reports that the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation are maintaining that the "economic crisis is jeopardizing the nation's ability to handle public-health emergencies and possible bioterrorist attacks." Under financial duress, "federal and state governments are cutting programs that help communities respond to disease outbreaks, natural disasters, and bioterrorism incidents," moves that could, according to the groups, "result in a serious rollback of the progress we've made since Sept. 11" and Hurricane Katrina.
In the report, titled "Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (12/10, Smith) explains that researchers grade each state on their ability and the adequacy of their "plans to dole out emergency medical supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile," which "is controlled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." Specifically, the group rated "states in 10 categories of emergency preparedness," including "how much money they provide for public health, how prepared they are for a flu pandemic, and whether they provide adequate legal protection to companies and nonprofits during an emergency."
According to the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger (12/10, Hester), "Louisiana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin scored the highest" -- a perfect 10 -- while "Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Montana, and Nebraska tied for the lowest score with 5 out of 10." As for New Jersey, it "ranks about the middle of the pack," with the report's authors criticizing "the state health department for having its public health budget cut, for not having the ability to quickly identify food-borne disease outbreaks, and not having a 24-hour-a-day statewide specimen delivery service."
By comparison, Arizona received a more acute lashing, as the state's governor, "Janet Napolitano, prepares for Senate confirmation hearings to serve as secretary of Homeland Security," the Arizona Republic (12/10, Wingett, Benson) pointed out. The state "has purchased about 12 percent of its share of federally subsidized antiviral medications, which would be called upon in case of a pandemic outbreak of influenza," meaning its "stockpile of nearly 70,000 treatments...could be insufficient in the instance of an outbreak of avian flu, for example."
Ohio, scoring an eight, was commended for being "one of just 26 states whose public-health lab has an intra-state courier system that operates 24 hours a day for specimen pickup and delivery, and one of just 24 states and D.C. that has laws that reduce or limit the liability for businesses and nonprofits that serve in a public-health emergency," the Columbus (OH) Dispatch (12/9, Risking, Candisky) reported.
Although the federal government keeps expectations high, "federal funding for state and local health emergency preparedness has been cut more than 25 percent since 2005," Modern Healthcare (12/9, Rhea) pointed out. Furthermore, "states are no longer receiving supplemental funding for flu-pandemic preparations; six states still do not have disease-surveillance systems that are compatible with the one used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and 16 states have purchased less than half of their share of federally subsidized antivirals to use during an influenza pandemic." The report's authors offer "several recommendations, including restoring federal and state funding, modernizing public-health surveillance and diagnostic systems, and making preparedness a part of healthcare reform" to alleviate these issues. The AP (12/10, Chereb), Wisconsin's Capital Times (12/9), the Rocky Mountain (CO) News (12/10, Sealover), North Carolina's News & Observer (12/9), the Salt Lake Tribune (12/9, May), the Tulsa (OK) World (12/10, Myers) and UPI (12/10) provide state-by-state perspectives.
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