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(Ed. note: The following two articles were chosen as must reads by members of our student body. The Kahn article is timely as it will lead to new discussions about disease surveillance systems prompted by the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (S. 3678). Hopefully that important piece of legislation will force the CDC to adopt a surveillance system that - in addition to real time clinician driven data from EMS, school nurses and primary care providers, will also include real time clinician ( DVM, Animal Control) reporting of zoonotic diseases. The Congressional
Research Service report on the public health and medical response
to the 2005 hurricanes should also be on the must read list of
the preparedness community. It should be noted that this report
may have underestimated the acute medical problems that arose
in the immediate aftermath of the storm. Anecdotally, it appears
that there were outbreaks of diarrheal diseases and skin lesions
at the shelters and emergency treatment shelters that were never
formally reported, in part because no good system of syndromic
surveillance was in place.) Book/article reviews Confronting
Zoonoses, Linking Human and Veterinary Medicine Review provided by Mark Kennedy In this article, Kahn establishes that many of the emerging infectious diseases (including bio-terrorist agents) encountered today are zoonoses and can therefore be transmitted from wild or domestic animals to humans. She argues that strategies for recognizing and dealing with these diseases are deficient in that they do not provide a uniform, systematic approach to this problem. Because of this, Kahn suggests three strategies be adopted which would enhance our ability to prevent and/or control emerging infectious diseases. These strategies are
The strategies proposed in this article represent a more systematic approach to dealing with diseases that constantly evolve, emerging in newer and deadlier forms. Kahn believes that it is only logical that we adopt methods designed to provide us with the fastest way of recognizing, tracking and treating diseases in order to prevent the types of pandemics which we have seen historically, and she maintains that the veterinary community plays a major role in this. Kahn argues that we can no longer afford to separate the two disciplines. The emergence of the threat of global terrorism using biological agents and the threat of new pandemics such as avian influenza makes the need for a uniform collaborative effort all the more compelling. CRS Report
for Congress 2005 Gulf Coast Hurricanes: The Public Health and Medical ResponseThe Congressional Research Service Report for Congress entitled 2005 Gulf Coast Hurricanes: The Public Health and Medical Response written by Sarah H. Lister (January 2006) reviews the federal response to one of the worst hurricane seasons on record. This report directed by Congress highlights the federal government’s responsibilities and lines of authority relating to disaster assistance to states damaged by Hurricane Katrina and others. It identified the response to Hurricane Katrina by the various federal agencies, highlighting some of the problems encountered during those responses . The problems ranged from logistical support issues to the inability to continue care because of lost medical records. Among the issues identified was the inability to use medical personnel who voluntarily came to the affected areas because their credentials could not be verified. The use of Disaster Medical Assistance Teams and problems encountered by the teams were discussed. This report is imperative for those responsible for planning, assessment, or response to any type of disaster. The lessons learned from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita highlight issues that need to be addressed ahead of time in the planning stages, not in the response or recovery stages.
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