The reactive approach to emerging infectious disease should be augmented with an anticipatory model that accounts for the dramatic changes occurring through globalization, greater interactions between human and zoonotic populations, and changes to the environment and climate patterns.
We assessed the relationship between individual characteristics and receipt of oseltamivir (Tamiflu) in the United States during the H1N1 pandemic and other flu seasons.
The response to the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic provides an opportunity to learn about the public health system's emergency response capabilities and to identify ways to improve preparedness for future events.
The after action report/improvement plan (AAR/IP) can be useful for both accountability and quality improvement, but these objectives require different foci and methodological approaches.
In this fiscally uncertain climate, we should continue to leverage the dual-use benefit of bioterrorism investments by building and maintaining those routine (but essential) public health capabilities that can also be used in response to a variety of public health emergencies.
RAND researchers developed an initial prototype tool to help determine capabilities and resources a locality will likely require during a disaster. The report also describes two social networking tools for local coordination of disaster preparedness.
National security implications and interconnections are explored among climate change, water scarcity, and pandemics, using examples of familiar and new policy approaches to inspire innovative thinking about threats to the global commons.
To assure the health security of the United States, we must be capable of stopping anything a terrorist or Mother Nature might throw at us. Wholesale cuts to public health are taking us farther from that goal, write Art Kellermann and Melinda Moore.
Faith-based organizations may frame HIV as punishment for sin, as a call to compassion, or as an opportunity for transformation. The frame affects the kinds of health services that these organizations provide, as well as the messages they convey about HIV to their congregations.
This report describes the current policy context for domestic all-hazards risk-informed capabilities-based planning by local military and civilian authorities and provides a framework for a local planning support tool for their use.
Information campaigns made more adults concerned about a pandemic, but didn't reassure them sufficiently about H1N1 vaccine safety and effectiveness that they got the vaccine.
In the rush of constant news updates on swine flu, we must recognize that controlling the spread of this disease is not simply a health concern but also one of national security. And in today's globalized world, the spread of swine flu has become not just a U.S. national security threat but every country's national security threat, writes Melinda Moore.
Assesses the extent to which the systems in place for prevention and control of routine annual influenza could provide the information and experience needed to manage a pandemic
Mounting an effective emergency response to a public health threat, such as a pandemic influenza, is a common challenge of state and local public health agencies across the country. The PREPARE toolkit provides a brief tutorial on using quality improvement methods to build agency capabilities and public health emergency preparedness.
Coordination and communication among community partners-including health departments, emergency management agencies, and hospitals-are essential for effective pandemic influenza planning and response. As the nation's largest integrated health care system, the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) could be a key component of community planning.
Describes a new quality-improvement tool that public health agencies can adopt to regularly look back at each routine annual influenza season to systematically institutionalize knowledge from one influenza season to the next.
New influenza A virus subtypes, similar to those that caused the three pandemics of the 20th century, are likely to emerge in the 21st century. RAND offers a manual of tabletop exercises that can be used by state and local health agencies to help prepare for such a threat.
