CDC recommendation on Avian Influenza and a summary of AHA call on Bird Flu

       Five good resources that you can download.

   Sign up is now open for the first event in the new 2004 AHRQ-sponsored series of FREE Web-assisted audio conferences on surge capacity and health system preparedness. The first event, “Surge Capacity: Education and Training for a Qualified Workforce,” is scheduled for Tuesday, March 2, 2004 from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Visit www.hsrnet.net/ahrq/surgecapacity/register.htm and complete the short sign up form.

   Mid-America Public Health Training Center announces a free satellite  session.

 "Psychological Aspects of Bioterrorism"

    March 4, 2004, 9:00 am - 10:00 am

    IU Department of Public Health, RG 4147

    Regenstrief Health Center, 1050 Wishard Blvd.

    IUPUI Campus

 Parking available in the Wilson Street Parking Garage

 To register your local site, please visit: http://www.informz.net/ualbany-sph/event.asp?eid=251

 For additional information please visit: www.ualbanycphp.org, email cphp@uamail.albany.edu or phone 518-486-7921.

 To order a free videotape contact: Margaret Watson, Administrative Coordinator, Center for Public Health Preparedness at  mwatson@albany.edu or phone: 518-402-0330

 See Description Below: with Robert J. Ursano, MD

 This program will address the fact that communities and individuals react to the stress of terror, as they do to natural events. Dr.  Ursano, Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, Uniformed Services University School of Medicine will discuss what public and private health professionals need to consider when dealing with the public's emotional and psychological health in times of stress and emergency.

 Objectives: At the conclusion of the presentation, the participants will be able to:

 1. Identify the three primary agencies/systems involved in protecting the public's health before, during and after a terrorist event

 2. List at least three examples of trauma-related disorders

 3. Describe at least three ways in which public health professionals can assist in interventions following disasters

Who Should Attend: National audience of state and local public health professionals, appropriate representatives from regional health departments, health-care facilities, emergency department workers, county executive offices and emergency management offices, public health partners (e.g., law enforcement, EMS, media representatives, etc) selected by each local health region with whom they are likely to interact around BT issues.

       The AHA hosted a call on Avian Influenza that you might find interesting as we prepare for the second wave. This Word document is the presentation with a Q&A session.

       The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published recommendations to help U.S. health departments, hospitals and clinicians identify patients who could be infected with avian influenza A, or bird flu, and take appropriate infection control precautions. The CDC advised U.S. hospitals to test for the virus in patients who have radiographically confirmed pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome or other severe respiratory illness and have traveled to a country with documented cases of the virus in humans or poultry within 10 days of symptom onset. Testing for the virus also should be considered in patients with a temperature greater than 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit; a cough, sore throat or shortness of breath; and contact with poultry or domestic birds or a known or suspected bird flu patient from a country affected by the virus.

       The CDC recommends using the same infection control precautions for confirmed or suspected bird flu patients as for severe acute respiratory syndrome, even though person-to-person transmission of bird flu is believed to be rare. There have been no known cases of the virus in U.S. birds or humans. However, 23 confirmed human cases of bird flu, including 18 deaths, and roughly 100 suspected cases have been reported in Thailand and Vietnam. The virus also has been reported in birds in six other Asian countries. The CDC recommendations are published at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr.

   Homeland Security Advisory System, "Fire and Emergency Services Preparedness Guide for the Homeland Security Advisory System" US Fire Administration. First Edition - January 2004. http://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/hsas-guide.pdf

   Radiation issues, "Guidance For Protective Actions Following A Radiological Terrorist Event". Position statement of the Health Physics Society. January 2004. http://hps.org/documents/RDDPAGs.pdf

   Radiation Issues. Background Information on "Guidance for Protective Actions Following a Radiological Terrorist Event" Position Statement of the Health Physics Society. Jan 2004. http://hps.org/documents/RDDPAGs.Background.pdf

   "Chemical Agent Detection Guide for First Responders" International Safety Equipment Association. http://www.safetyequipment.org/Chem_Guide_9.pdf

   The Emergency Multilingual phrasebook, produced and updated by the British Red Cross Society with advice and funding from the Department of Health and endorsed by the British Association for Emergency Medicine (BAEM) is translated into 36 languages. It covers the most common medical questions and terms to help first contact staff communicate with patients who do not speak English and make an initial assessment while an interpreter is contacted. Multilingual Emergency Medical Phrase Book, British Red Cross Society