From healthmaps@home.com Tue Oct 16 15:40:48 2001 Received: from mailscan2.cac.washington.edu (mailscan2.cac.washington.edu [140.142.33.16]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.11.6+UW01.08/8.11.6+UW01.08) with SMTP id f9GMejN25318 for ; Tue, 16 Oct 2001 15:40:45 -0700 Received: FROM mxu4.u.washington.edu BY mailscan2.cac.washington.edu ; Tue Oct 16 15:40:43 2001 -0700 Received: from femail22.sdc1.sfba.home.com (femail22.sdc1.sfba.home.com [24.0.95.147]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.11.6+UW01.08/8.11.6+UW01.08) with ESMTP id f9GMegQ04182 for ; Tue, 16 Oct 2001 15:40:42 -0700 Received: from c501522d ([24.19.225.248]) by femail22.sdc1.sfba.home.com (InterMail vM.4.01.03.20 201-229-121-120-20010223) with SMTP id <20011016224039.KCBX27641.femail22.sdc1.sfba.home.com@c501522d> for ; Tue, 16 Oct 2001 15:40:39 -0700 From: "Richard Hoskins" To: "WAPHGIS" Subject: FW: Emergency Response Center Update from CDC's Director Dr. Jeffrey Koplan Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 15:40:37 -0700 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2911.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 See below, not a GIS issue, but certainly a public health issue. Dick Hoskins Spatial Epidemiology Office of the Assistant Secretary Epidemiology, Health Statistics and Public Health Laboratories WA State Dept of Health Olympia, WA (360) 236-4270 richard.hoskins@doh.wa.gov GMT -7 "The Department of Health works to protect and improve the health of people in Washington State." -----Original Message----- From: NCHS/ORM Public Health Geographic Information Systems Users Group [mailto:GIS-STATES-OTHER@LISTSERV.CDC.GOV]On Behalf Of Croner, Charles M. Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2001 1:10 PM To: GIS-STATES-OTHER@LISTSERV.CDC.GOV Subject: Emergency Response Center Update from CDC's Director Dr. Jeffrey Koplan...received today > Update on CDC's Involvement in Response to Reported and Suspected Cases of > Anthrax > > Because of the increasing demand on CDC and ATSDR to provide technical > assistance to states that are investigating possible cases of anthrax, I > authorized a number of actions over this past weekend to centralize and > streamline our ability to efficiently respond to the many requests coming > to the agencies. The rapid implementation of these actions over the past > few days required dedicated work by a large number of CDC/ATSDR employees > who came in over the weekend and worked long hours to assist in our > response to this emergency situation. > > 1) Emergency Response Center > > With assistance from senior management officials from CDC and ATSDR, an > Emergency Response Center was quickly set up and staffed in Auditorium A, > Roybal Campus. This emergency center began operations on Monday, October > 15, 2001. The focus of this center will be to manage the day-to-day > operations associated with all aspects of the emergency response > activities related to anthrax or other similar requests. The new > operations center will be staffed around the clock by approximately 40 > people, with staffing levels to be based on critical workload. The > telephone number of the center is (770) 488-7100. > > Although the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program took the lead > in implementing the organization of this center, virtually all components > of CDC and ATSDR have assigned staff members to work in this emergency > response activity. The staffing includes senior level management, > epidemiologists, communications personnel, laboratorians, information > technology specialists, public health advisors, and administrative staff. > > During the time that this emergency response center is operational, staff > in the various programs will be asked to assume the duties of individuals > who are assigned to this emergency response activity. It is my hope that > CDC/ATSDR staff can later be assigned on a rotational basis so that CDC > and ATSDR programs are not adversely affected on a long-term basis. > > 2) State Liaison Teams > > Another key component of the emergency response activity was the creation > of several state liaison teams that will work closely with state and local > health department officials handling the Florida, New York, and > Washington, D.C., anthrax investigations. The state liaison teams will > also coordinate the activities of CDC/ATSDR employees who are working on > field teams in the locations that have suspected or confirmed anthrax > cases. In some cases, it may be necessary to deploy additional staff > members to the field to address various investigations. We are preparing > to deploy additional teams in the event clusters in other areas are > reported. > > 3) Communications to Health Officials, First Responders, and Medical > Professionals > > Using the Health Alert Network and other communications channels, CDC > quickly disseminated important information to health departments and other > professionals on a variety of topics, including how to handle suspicious > packages, protocols for specimen handling, laboratory procedures, and > decontamination. For more information, you may go to the website of the > CDC Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Program, > http://www.bt.cdc.gov/. > > Jeffrey P. Koplan, M.D., M.P.H. .