Ounce of Prevention Is Worth A Pound of Cure--Shoring Up the Public Health Infrastructure to Respond to Bioterrorist Attacks

• NCJ Number: 193195
• Author(s): Jacalyn L. Bryan M.S.; Helen Fox Fields
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 8 pages
• Sale Source: Assoc of State and Territorial Health Officials
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Downloaded February 25, 2002

Annotation

This paper examines reinforcing the public health infrastructure to respond to bioterrorist attacks.

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services considers that public health, particularly at State and local levels, has the ability to respond to bioterrorist acts. However, it lacks resources to effectively build and maintain the components necessary to assure the capacity to respond. Whether the threat is from intentional contamination or from the emergence of a disease-causing microorganism, protecting the public from infectious disease depends on key aspects of public health infrastructure: surveillance, laboratory capacity, outbreak response, immunization, and other preventive services. The paper concludes that enhancing public health infrastructure at the Federal, State, and local levels to prepare for a bioterrorist event has benefits for the public's health. An efficient, effective public health response to a bioterrorist event can mean the difference between chaos, widespread panic, and increased casualties, and a significant reduction of disease, disability, and death related to such an event. References