Vector-borne and Zoonotic Diseases, Part Two : Preparedness Overview
This is a full transcript of the online presentation. For the
presentation itself, go here.
Presented by:
Carina Blackmore, D.V.M., Ph.D.
State Public Health Veterinarian
Division of Environmental Health
Contact Number: 850-245-4732
Hello Im Dr. Carina Blackmore,
Im the state public health Veterinarian for the Department of Health and
today I will be talking too you about preparedness.
What are we doing here in the Department of Health and
what are other people doing in the state of Florida too prepare for a bioterrorism
attacks. One of our main partners, when it comes to zoonotic and vector
borne diseases, is the Department of Agriculture the Division of Animal
Industry. Theyre the main agency in this state that are
responsible for diagnosing animal diseases. They also are very helpful to
us in public health because they control state quarantines and animal
movements in connection with such quarantines. And is natural they are then
the lead agency when it comes too animal bioterrorism
preparedness and response. We also work very closely with mosquito control;
they are of course controlling mosquitoes both thru larval control and adulticiding.
Its very important when it comes to bioterrorism preparedness you get to
know your mosquitoes control staff and also too find out what their local
plans are cause the mosquito control districts in
the state of Florida
are controlled locally. Another
thing that I would like you too look at is: do they really have enough
capacity to respond to a large outbreak both naturally occurring outbreak
or a bioterrorism outbreak? Do they have enough capacity is there something
that we as a public health agency can do too build that capacity?
Within the Division of Environmental Health we have
several programs that are involved in bioterrorism preparedness and
zoonotic vector borne disease preparedness and we have the zoonotic and
vector and disease surveillance and investigation program here which works
very closely with both laboratories and a lot of different agencies in the
state on a variety of zoonotic and vector borne disease issues. We also
have a program that does food borne disease investigations and water borne
disease investigations, and we have a program that deals with biological
waste such as mass animal casualties.
So what can you do? First of all, of course, you need to
look at yourself. Make sure that you wear mosquito repellant when you go
outside to not get bitten by mosquitoes. Know who we are in the Division of
Environmental Health that deals with zoonotic and vector borne diseases.
And also know what are response plan looks like and how you can integrate
with that response plan.
Surveillance is very important when it comes too
planning. Its something that you can do on a day to day basis. Are normal
surveillance program in the Department of Health in the past is we would
receive reports from doctors, but we can also seek out that information by
actively soliciting information if we need to, which we did during the
anthrax outbreak for example. In the zoonotic and vector borne disease
program we both do animal and human surveillance we work with our partners
for the animal piece and coordinate the human surveillance.
As part of the surveillance and investigation piece, of
course, is an important assessment of risk. We dont want to forget the
patient that is involved when we have human cases, but what we do in public
health is to focus on what is the risk to others: how can we prevent
disease from occurring in the entire population? So investigate them, we
look for exposures. Is the exposure natural? Or is this a sign that we have
something strange occurring like a bioterrorism event? Is the person thats
been infected someone you would expect would get the disease? Is the
bacteria or virus thats involved something that we would normally see in Florida? There are a
lot of things that you can find out by just interviewing patients.
And, of course, the other thing that we do in public
health is then to try too develop messages and develop knowledge as to how
to prevent that disease from occurring and others from getting the
illnesses. Then when we have that information in hand we communicate. We
communicate with physicians, veterinarians, mosquito control, anyone that
wants too listen, and the public as well.
Its very important to communicate. Make sure that your
local physicians and veterinarians know your numbers. Get to know the folks
in the other agencies that are involved with zoonotic diseases and vector
borne diseases. The folks in DACS the folks in Fish and Wildlife, they have
regional staff get to know who they are. We also have federal agencies,
like USDA in our, state that have field staff that we can use if we need
too. Familiarize yourself with procedures for getting access to such
resources.
Make sure you share our response plan and your local
response plan with your local stake holders and even more importantly, if
you can, develop them jointly. Many in our communities still need education
about the importance of zoonotic diseases and where they fit in when it
comes to bioterrorism. That actually stake holders that may be working with
animals and vectors so make sure you reach out to them as well.
So in conclusion, it is very important to get prepared.
Keep the surveillance information coming and also make sure too work with
everyone else thats involved in zoonotic and vector borne diseases
surveillance and response. And thank you very much for you attention.
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