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A survey monkey was sent out to EPCs and tribal health partners asking those who will be attending the Great Lakes Homeland Security (GLHS) conference next week to gauge interest in an informal get together over dinner. The survey resulted in Tuesday, May 10, as the preferred date. We will meet at the Brick & Porter Pub and Kitchen at 6:30 pm (ET). If you are planning on joining us, please email Tracey Belknap in the CHECC to confirm no later than Friday, May 6.
Tis the season for spring as well as for rabies exposure. Michigan healthcare providers (HCPs) who are caring for people potentially exposed to rabies can access Michigan resources to help with patient care and decision making. These include the following:
• Michigan’s “Rabies Risk Assessment: When A Person has been Exposed” flowchart
• Michigan’s “Rabies Risk Assessment: When Animals have Bitten People or Been Exposed” flowchart
• Michigan “Rabies Risk Assessment: Zoo or Exotic Animal Bites” flowchart and FAQ’s
• Poster: Rabies PEP Guidance for Healthcare Providers and Facilities
In many situations, if an animal that may have bitten a person is available for testing (wildlife, sick domestic animal) or observation (healthy domestic dog or cat), rabies post-exposure treatment of the person can wait, pending the outcome of the animal. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Bureau of Laboratories is the only lab in the state that tests animals for rabies. Information about submitting animals for rabies testing can be found at https://www.michigan.gov/mdhhslab.
If rabies post-exposure treatment is indicated, the treatment regime varies depending on if a person has been vaccinated against rabies in the past. For individuals who have never received rabies vaccination, treatment consists of the administration of BOTH rabies immunoglobulin and rabies vaccine. Additional rabies vaccine doses are administered over the subsequent 2-week period. For people who have been previously vaccinated, the treatment schedule is abbreviated and includes 2 doses of rabies vaccine 3 days apart; rabies immunoglobulin is not necessary and should not be administered.
If HCPs have questions about rabies exposures and treatment, they can contact their local health department, visit the MDHHS Rabies website or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Rabies website. On evenings and weekends, HCPs can contact staff with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services On-Call service for assistance at 517-335-9030.
Does your health department or tribal health clinic have more personal protective equipment (PPE) than needed in your current cache, and you do not know what to do with it? DEPR has some information for you: LHDs and tribal health clinics are allowed to share this surplus with community partners. Community partners could include hospitals, long term care facilities, adult foster care, homes for the aged, community mental health agencies, substance abuse agencies, medical providers, dental offices, EMS, and local Community College medical and dental hygiene/assistant programs. Make sure to document the transfer of these supplies to community partners. Contact the CHECC if you have any questions.
On May 3, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning that counterfeit at-home over-the-counter (OTC) diagnostic tests for COVID-19 have been distributed or used in the United States. These counterfeit tests should not be used or distributed. The FDA will update their site to list counterfeit at-home OTC COVID-19 diagnostic tests to alert the public, including test users, caregivers, health care providers, and distributors, and to provide information on how to identify counterfeit tests.
- On April 25, 2022, CDC issued a Health Alert Network (HAN) Health Advisory that includes updated information on the availability and use of treatments for outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19 who are at increased risk for severe outcomes of COVID-19.
• On April 25, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded the approval of the COVID-19 treatment Veklury (remdesivir) to include pediatric patients 28 days of age and older weighing at least 3 kilograms (about 7 pounds) with positive results of direct SARS-CoV-2 viral testing, who are: 1) hospitalized or 2) not hospitalized and have mild-to-moderate COVID-19 and are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19, including hospitalization or death.
• On April 14, 2022, the U.S government SARS-CoV-2 Interagency Group (SIG) downgraded Delta from a Variant of Concern to a Variant Being Monitored. For more information, visit the SARS-CoV-2 Variant Classifications and Definitions webpage.
• CDC recently developed a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page for the Quarantine and Isolation Calculator. The FAQs address commonly asked questions about the calculator, including the features and limitations of the calculator and information about groups and settings that should not use the calculator to determine isolation and quarantine.
• In an effort to improve our understanding of health misinformation and how best to address it, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released a Request for Information (RFI) on the Impact of Health Misinformation in the Digital Information Environment in the United States Throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic. The RFI is open for public comment through May 2, 2022.
• CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics (CFA) will enhance the nation’s ability to use data, models, and analytics to enable timely, effective decision-making in response to public health threats for CDC and its public health partners.
• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Fiscal Year 2023 Inpatient Prospective Payment System and Long-term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System (IPPS/LTCH PPS) Proposed Rule (CMS-1771-P) Proposed Rule is now open for public comment. The comment period closes on June 17, 2022.
A recent CDC study, Public Health Impact of Coronavirus Disease Vaccines in the United States (BMJ article), evaluated the impact of vaccine scale-up on population-level mortality and incidence in the United States. In this observational study of nearly 300 million persons and 80% of U.S. counties, higher vaccination coverage was associated with lower rates of population-level COVID-19 mortality and incidence. Compared with largely unvaccinated counties, highly vaccinated counties had reduced mortality and cases. These data support achieving high coverage of vaccination across communities nationally. In addition, vaccines should be deployed strategically with public health and social measures based on ongoing levels of transmission. you are invited to read the study.
In addition, please see the editorial from Oxford University.
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