Vaccine Administration by Paramedics: A Model for Bioterrorism and Disaster Response Preparation

2003 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 321-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce J. Walz ◽  
Richard A. Bissell ◽  
Brian Maguire ◽  
James A. Judge
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Emergency Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
Specific Training ◽  
Response Preparation ◽  
Vaccination Programs ◽  
Emergency Services Personnel ◽  
Cdc Guidelines ◽  
Control And Prevention

AbstractThe events of 11 September 2001 have had a profound effect on disaster planning efforts in the United States. This is true especially in the area of bioter-rorism. One of the major tenets of bioterrorism response is the vaccination of at-riskpopulations. This paper investigates the efficacy of training emergency medical services paramedics to administer vaccines in public health settings as preparation for and response to bioterrorism events and other disaster events.The concept of vaccination administration by specially trained paramedics is not new. Various programs to provide immunizations for emergency services personnel and at-risk civilian populations have been reported.Vaccination programs by paramedics should follow the guidelines of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Thispaper compares the seven standards of the CDC guidelines to routine paramedic practice and education. It is concluded that paramedics are adequately trained to administer vaccines. However, specific training and protocols are needed in the areas of administrative paperwork and patient education. A proposed outline for a paramedic-training program is presented.

Vaccine Administration by Paramedics: A Model for Bioterrorism and Disaster ResponsePreparation

2003 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 321-326
Author(s):  
Bruce J. Walz ◽  
Richard A. Bissell ◽  
Brian Maguire ◽  
James A. Judge
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Patient Education ◽  
Emergency Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
Specific Training ◽  
Vaccination Programs ◽  
Emergency Services Personnel ◽  
Cdc Guidelines ◽  
Control And Prevention

AbstractThe events of 11 September 2001 have had a profound effect on disaster planning efforts in the United States. This is true especially in the area of bioter-rorism. One of the major tenets of bioterrorism response is the vaccination of at-riskpopulations. This paper investigates the efficacy of training emergency medical services paramedics to administer vaccines in public health settings as preparation for and response to bioterrorism events and other disaster events.The concept of vaccination administration by specially trained paramedics is not new. Various programs to provide immunizations for emergency services personnel and at-risk civilian populations have been reported.Vaccination programs by paramedics should follow the guidelines of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Thispaper compares the seven standards of the CDC guidelines to routine paramedic practice and education. It is concluded that paramedics are adequately trained to administer vaccines. However, specific training and protocols are needed in the areas of administrative paperwork and patient education. A proposed outline for a paramedic-training program is presented.

Public Health Implementation Considerations for State-Level Ebola Monitoring and Movement Restrictions

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Tara Kirk Sell ◽  
Matthew P. Shearer ◽  
Diane Meyer ◽  
Mary Leinhos ◽  
Erin Thomas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Movement Restriction ◽  
Implementation Processes ◽  
Cdc Guidelines ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Substantial Resource

ABSTRACT Objective: This article describes implementation considerations for Ebola-related monitoring and movement restriction policies in the United States during the 2013–2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted between January and May 2017 with 30 individuals with direct knowledge of state-level Ebola policy development and implementation processes. Individuals represented 17 jurisdictions with variation in adherence to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, census region, predominant state political affiliation, and public health governance structures, as well as the CDC. Results: Interviewees reported substantial resource commitments required to implement Ebola monitoring and movement restriction policies. Movement restriction policies, including for quarantine, varied from voluntary to mandatory programs, and, occasionally, quarantine enforcement procedures lacked clarity. Conclusions: Efforts to improve future monitoring and movement restriction policies may include addressing surge capacity to implement these programs, protocols for providing support to affected individuals, coordination with law enforcement, and guidance on varying approaches to movement restrictions.

scholarly journals Users’ Beliefs Toward Physical Distancing in Facebook Pages of Public Health Authorities During COVID-19 Pandemic in Early 2020

2021 ◽  
pp. 109019812110144
Author(s):  
Soon Guan Tan ◽  
Aravind Sesagiri Raamkumar ◽  
Hwee Lin Wee
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Belief Model ◽  
United States Public Health ◽  
Health Belief ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Belief Model ◽  
The Health Belief Model

This study aims to describe Facebook users’ beliefs toward physical distancing measures implemented during the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic using the key constructs of the health belief model. A combination of rule-based filtering and manual classification methods was used to classify user comments on COVID-19 Facebook posts of three public health authorities: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States, Public Health England, and Ministry of Health, Singapore. A total of 104,304 comments were analyzed for posts published between 1 January, 2020, and 31 March, 2020, along with COVID-19 cases and deaths count data from the three countries. Findings indicate that the perceived benefits of physical distancing measures ( n = 3,463; 3.3%) was three times higher than perceived barriers ( n = 1,062; 1.0%). Perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 ( n = 2,934; 2.8%) was higher compared with perceived severity ( n = 2,081; 2.0%). Although susceptibility aspects of physical distancing were discussed more often at the start of the year, mentions on the benefits of intervention emerged stronger toward the end of the analysis period, highlighting the shift in beliefs. The health belief model is useful for understanding Facebook users’ beliefs at a basic level, and it provides a scope for further improvement.

scholarly journals Age-Standardized Mortality of Persons on Probation, in Jail, or in State Prison and the General Population, 2001-2012

2019 ◽  
Vol 134 (6) ◽  
pp. 660-666 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Wildeman ◽  
Alyssa W. Goldman ◽  
Emily A. Wang
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Age Distribution ◽  
Correctional Facility ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
State Prison ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Standardized Mortality Ratios

Objectives: The number of adults in the United States being held on probation—persons convicted of crimes and serving their sentence in the community rather than in a correctional facility—approached 4 million at the end of 2016 and continues to grow, yet little is known about the health and well-being of this population. We compared the standardized mortality ratios of persons on probation in the United States with persons in jail, persons in state prison, and the general US population. Methods: We used administrative data from 2001-2012 from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention WONDER database and indirect standardization techniques to compare the mortality rates of persons on probation in 15 states with the mortality rates of persons in jail, persons in state prison, and the general US population. We applied the age-specific mortality rates of 3 populations (general US population, persons in jail, and persons in state prison) to the age distribution of persons on probation to estimate standardized mortality ratios. Results: Persons on probation died at a rate 3.42 times higher than persons in jail, 2.81 times higher than persons in state prison, and 2.10 times higher than the general US population, after standardizing the age distribution of persons on probation relative to the other 3 groups. Conclusions: Public health interventions should target persons on probation, who have received less attention from the public health community than persons serving sentences in jails and prisons.

scholarly journals Understanding the Public Discussion About the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention During the COVID-19 Pandemic Using Twitter Data: Text Mining Analysis Study

10.2196/25108 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. e25108
Author(s):  
Joanne Chen Lyu ◽  
Garving K Luli
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disease Control ◽  
The United States ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Public Discussion ◽  
The Public ◽  
Twitter Data ◽  
The World ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Centers For Disease Control

Background The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a national public health protection agency in the United States. With the escalating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on society in the United States and around the world, the CDC has become one of the focal points of public discussion. Objective This study aims to identify the topics and their overarching themes emerging from the public COVID-19-related discussion about the CDC on Twitter and to further provide insight into public's concerns, focus of attention, perception of the CDC's current performance, and expectations from the CDC. Methods Tweets were downloaded from a large-scale COVID-19 Twitter chatter data set from March 11, 2020, when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, to August 14, 2020. We used R (The R Foundation) to clean the tweets and retain tweets that contained any of five specific keywords—cdc, CDC, centers for disease control and prevention, CDCgov, and cdcgov—while eliminating all 91 tweets posted by the CDC itself. The final data set included in the analysis consisted of 290,764 unique tweets from 152,314 different users. We used R to perform the latent Dirichlet allocation algorithm for topic modeling. Results The Twitter data generated 16 topics that the public linked to the CDC when they talked about COVID-19. Among the topics, the most discussed was COVID-19 death counts, accounting for 12.16% (n=35,347) of the total 290,764 tweets in the analysis, followed by general opinions about the credibility of the CDC and other authorities and the CDC's COVID-19 guidelines, with over 20,000 tweets for each. The 16 topics fell into four overarching themes: knowing the virus and the situation, policy and government actions, response guidelines, and general opinion about credibility. Conclusions Social media platforms, such as Twitter, provide valuable databases for public opinion. In a protracted pandemic, such as COVID-19, quickly and efficiently identifying the topics within the public discussion on Twitter would help public health agencies improve the next-round communication with the public.

scholarly journals Enhancing Community Engagement by Schools and Programs of Public Health in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mindi B. Levin ◽  
Janice V. Bowie ◽  
Steven K. Ragsdale ◽  
Amy L. Gawad ◽  
Lisa A. Cooper ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Community Engagement ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Community Based Participatory Research ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Control And Prevention

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention define community engagement as “the process of working collaboratively with and through groups of people” in order to improve their health and well-being. Central to the field of public health, community engagement should also be at the core of the work of schools and programs of public health. This article reviews best practices and emerging innovations in community engagement for education, for research, and for practice, including critical service-learning, community-based participatory research, and collective impact. Leadership, infrastructure, and culture are key institutional facilitators of successful academic efforts. Major challenges to overcome include mistrust by community members, imbalance of power, and unequal sharing of credit. Success in this work will advance equity and improve health in communities all around the world. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 42 is April 1, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

scholarly journals The Check and Report Ebola (CARE+) Program to Monitor Travelers for Ebola After Arrival to the United States, 2014-2016

2019 ◽  
Vol 134 (6) ◽  
pp. 592-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather A. Joseph ◽  
Abbey E. Wojno ◽  
Kelly Winter ◽  
Onalee Grady-Erickson ◽  
Erin Hawes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Care Program ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Control And Prevention

The 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa influenced how public health officials considered migration and emerging infectious diseases. Responding to the public’s concerns, the US government introduced enhanced entry screening and post-arrival monitoring by public health authorities to reduce the risk of importation and domestic transmission of Ebola while continuing to allow travel from West Africa. This case study describes a new initiative, the Check and Report Ebola (CARE+) program that engaged travelers arriving to the United States from countries with Ebola outbreaks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employed CARE ambassadors, who quickly communicated with incoming travelers and gave them practical resources to boost their participation in monitoring for Ebola. The program aimed to increase travelers’ knowledge of Ebola symptoms and how to seek medical care safely, increase travelers’ awareness of monitoring requirements, reduce barriers to monitoring, and increase trust in the US public health system. This program could be adapted for use in future outbreaks that involve the potential importation of disease and require the education and active engagement of travelers to participate in post-arrival monitoring.

scholarly journals Using photos for public health communication: A computational analysis of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Instagram photos and public responses

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 2159-2180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunhwan Kim ◽  
Jang Hyun Kim
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disease Control ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Health Communication ◽  
Cognitive Services ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Centers For Disease Control ◽  
Human Faces

This study aims to explore the use of Instagram by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the representative public health authorities in the United States. For this aim, all of the photos uploaded on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Instagram account were crawled and the content of them were analyzed using Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services. Also, engagement was measured by the sum of numbers of likes and comments to each photo, and sentiment analysis of comments was conducted. Results suggest that the photos that can be categorized into “text” and “people” took the largest share in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Instagram photos. And it was found that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s major way of delivering messages on Instagram was to imprint key messages that call for actions for better health on photos and to provide the source of complementary information on text component of each post. It was also found that photos with more and bigger human faces had lower level of engagement than the others, and happiness and neutral emotions expressed on the faces in photos were negatively associated with engagement. The features whose high value would make the photos look splendid and gaudy were negatively correlated with engagement, but sharpness was positively correlated.

The Census and Public Health

Pained ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 31-32
Author(s):  
Michael D. Stein ◽  
Sandro Galea
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Federal Grants ◽  
Population Count ◽  
Outreach Programs ◽  
Education Levels ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Head Count ◽  
Us Constitution

This chapter describes the importance of the census for public health. The US Constitution mandates that each resident of the country be counted at least every 10 years. As the 2020 census approached, the Trump administration launched an effort to meddle with how to perform this head count, by adding a question about citizenship to the census. This move was roundly criticized by the Census Bureau’s Scientific Advisory committee and became the target of lawsuits. It looked very much like an attempt to depress the 2020 population count in immigrant-rich and predominantly Democratic areas, in advance of redistricting in 2021. Accurate census data are critical for the public's health. These data drive federal grants to states for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. They guide disaster response and disease outbreak planning. Moreover, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) uses census information to locate geographic areas with low education levels and high poverty rates, so as to expand screening and outreach programs. Thus, these data inform the building of roads, schools, and health centers. As such, political moves to influence the census is a matter of great concern for public health.

After September 11: Rethinking Public Health Federalism

2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy E. Parmet
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Health System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal State ◽  
The Public ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Local Officials ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Effective Public Health ◽  
Suspicious Case

In the fall of 2001, the need for a vigorous and effective public health system became more apparent than it had been for many decades. With the advent of the first widescale bioterrorist attack on the United States, the government's obligation to respond and take steps to protect the public health became self-evident.Also obvious was the need for of an effective partnership between federal, state, and local officials. Local officials are almost always on the front lines of the struggle against bioterrorism. They are the first to recognize a suspicious case and to provide testing and treatment for the affected population. At the same time, state officials are needed to support and coordinate local efforts, providing an expertise that may be lacking in many communities, especially smaller ones.But few would doubt that the federal government has a key role to play. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected to lead the epidemiological investigation and provide expertise on how to cope with diseases that remain unfamiliar to most physicians.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document