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The August 10, 2017 EPC Call agenda is linked below. The August call is scheduled for LHD EPCs only.
The MDHHS On-Call team reminds EPCs that the LHD 24/7 contact information (see BP1-17 LHD Work Plan Deliverable 1.1) is used by the On-Call team to contact LHDs after hours to discuss cases of animal bites and the potential for exposure to rabies. EPCs should make sure LHD 24/7 contacts can assess these calls or have a way to reach staff that can assist callers after hours when necessary. Seventy-five percent of the after hours calls received by the MDHHS On-Call team are rabies-related. August is usually the peak month for animal exposure calls to public health and requests for animal rabies testing in Michigan. Rabies is a concern anytime of the year, but particularly in the summer when animals and people have more chances to come in contact with one another.
Rabies is a viral disease that is nearly always fatal in humans once clinical symptoms start. Prevention through laboratory testing of the biting animal and post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) before disease symptoms appear are the only means to stop rabies in humans. In most cases, people can wait to begin rabies PEP for an animal to either be confined for observation or tested. If testing is indicated, timely submission of appropriate animal specimens to MDHHS can prevent initiation of unnecessary and expensive rabies PEP treatment. It becomes very important for state and local public health officials to communicate with each other no matter what time of day a potential exposure occurs to determine the most appropriate course of action to prevent the exposed individual(s) from contracting rabies.
For more information on rabies visit www.cdc.gov/rabies.
CDC’s next Second Wednesday Webinar is scheduled for 1:00 to 2:00 PM EDT on August 9, 2017. Panelists from CDC’s Division of State and Local Readiness and Division of Strategic National Stockpile will discuss the recently released “Receiving 60-day Anthrax Medical Countermeasures from CDC's Strategic National Stockpile: Planning Considerations for State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Partners,” now available on On-TRAC.
To join the webinar, participants can log into the Adobe Connect meeting room. To listen to the audio portion, dial 1-800-475-4962 and enter participant passcode 4330935 (limited to the first 200). Registration is not required. Past Second Wednesday Webinar recordings and presentation slides are available in the Hot Topics section of CDC’s Online Technical Resource and Assistance Center (On-TRAC).
On September 11, 2017 from 12:30 to 1:30 PM EDT, Mark Davidson, FBI WMD Coordinator and Dr. Marty Soehnlen, MDHHS Laboratory will provide an Adobe Connect presentation on responding to White Powder Incidents. The presentation is being offered to Health Officers, EPCs, Lab, EPI and Environmental Health staff, as well as other response partners. Registration is available on MI-TRAIN – course ID: 1072388. Participants will have the option of attending the live Adobe Connect meeting or attending the presentation in person. Select only one of the session options when registering.
The BP1-17 regional application work plan and status report document that was distributed to the regional HCCs by the DEPR HPP section is linked below for informational purposes. For questions, contact Shelly Norris-Chapman at ChapmanS1@michigan.gov.
The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) jointly released a document entitled “Extended Medical Countermeasure Distribution and Dispensing Considerations for an Anthrax Incident.” State and local medical countermeasure (MCM) subject matter experts from ASTHO’s MCM coordinators peer network and NACCHO’s MCM work group developed the document to provide state and local MCM planners with information on a range of relevant long-term MCM distribution and dispensing topics. Each topic includes the following sections: assumptions, topic description, promising practices, steps to implementation, opportunities for state and local health departments, critical points for plan improvement, and additional resources. The planning document is available for download on either ASTHO or NACCHO websites.
This document is distinct from the recently released CDC document, “Receiving 60-day Anthrax Medical Countermeasures from CDC's Strategic National Stockpile: Planning Considerations for State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Partners,” which is available via CDC’s Online Technical Resource and Assistance Center (On-TRAC). However, both documents provide useful information and resources that support state and local MCM operational planning.
DSLR’s training team will offer a three-day POD Essentials Train-the-Trainer course at FEMA’s Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) in Anniston, Ala., from September 10 to 12, 2017.
The POD Essentials Train-the-Trainer course is a three-day class designed to prepare state and local public health instructors for implementation of medical countermeasure (MCM) training in their jurisdictions. The course consists of presentations, group activities, and discussions to introduce DSLR’s new POD Essentials course material and prepare participants to teach the material, which jurisdictions can customize to meet their needs. POD Essentials is an introductory course for staff who will be working in point-of-dispensing sites (PODs) during a public health emergency. The course is divided into the following five modules that are designed to be taught independently, as one course, or a combination of the two to meet the needs of the audience.
- Overview of Medical Countermeasure Response
- PODs
- Greeting/Triage
- Screening and Dispensing
- Responder Wellness
During the training, participants will practice the process of planning, customizing, and delivering a portion of a selected module from the POD Essentials course. This training is designed to strengthen the capacity of instructors by applying training and facilitation skills in practice training sessions. It is targeted to trainers at the state or local level who conduct MCM-related training for other staff or volunteers.
For more information, or to register visit the CDP webpage. Note that the training is listed on the CDP page by its former name, MADT. Questions regarding the training should be directed to the DSLR training team at dslrtraining@cdc.gov
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