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Key Objectives:
- Provide networking opportunities for epidemiologists and public health professionals from local health departments that work in or would like to learn more about the field of disaster epidemiology
- Discuss disaster epidemiology tools and components that have been integrated into emergency response plans at local health departments.
Brief Summary:
Local health departments play a critical role in the planning, response and recovery to natural disasters and public health emergencies. Local epidemiologists play a vital role in this process by providing subject matter expertise on data collection, analysis, dissemination and providing situational awareness of the health of the affected community. Local epidemiologists can take concepts, tools and resources from disaster epidemiology and implement them at the local level to better prepare for and respond to disasters. In the City of Nashua, New Hampshire, the Division of Public Health and Community Services employs a full-time epidemiologist that assists with public health emergency preparedness and responds to outbreaks and emerging threats. As part of the planning process, a protocol has been developed and integrated into the emergency response plans for conducting surveillance in shelters during disasters and the Division is in the beginning stages of incorporating tools from the Emergency Responder Health Monitoring and Surveillance toolkit. During this roundtable, the Epidemiologist will discuss the partnerships that have been developed, such as working with emergency managers, while implementing these programs. In Cass County, Missouri, the Cass County Health Department employs a part-time epidemiologist and preparedness planner that is in charge of public health emergency preparedness and assists with communicable disease investigation and outbreaks. The Health Department is in the process of developing a disaster epidemiology protocol to be included in the emergency response plan. Regionally, the Kansas City metro area has brought together environmental specialists, epidemiologists, public health preparedness planners, emergency managers, law enforcement, fire, and other stakeholders to discuss the expectations that we have of each other during disasters. The Cass County Health Department has been working closely with emergency management to develop training for local Community Emergency Response Teams to help with shelter inspections using the CDC Shelter Assessment Tool. It is evident that local epidemiologists are an important part of the planning, response and recovery to disasters and this discussion will allow colleagues to share how they are incorporating disaster epidemiology into their local work and brainstorm ideas for fostering collaborations with emergency management in the community.