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The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) released a new report, Advancing Preparedness for Life Support Users During Power Outages, which provides preparedness planners with information on addressing power outage threats for life support users. Power outages pose serious challenges, particularly for those relying on life support equipment at home. The frequency and the duration of outages, often caused by natural disasters, are increasing. In the absence of backup power, medical device users often turn to hospitals or shelters during outages. Similar situations occurred during events like Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and the Texas power grid failure in 2021.
To address these issues, the ASTHO report suggests various solutions for supporting durable medical equipment (DME) users during outages, from small measures to more resource-intensive programs like Louisiana’s Power Outage Partners pilot. This report outlines a roadmap for jurisdictions to enhance assistance for DME users and reduce the burden on hospitals and emergency services during power outages, ultimately improving support for individuals relying on life support and DME devices.
Over the past year, the Michigan Climate and Health Adaptation Program (MICHAP) developed a variety of health education materials that will help Michigander's plan for and respond to the health impacts of climate change.
The MDHHS Fall and Winter Climate Health Education Resource Packet pulls together seasonally relevant health education resources that you can use in communications, trainings, or to share in your networks. The packet includes factsheets and social media from MICHAP and other state partners on how to protect health and safety from climate hazards. Specifically, this resource packet provides more information on cold-related illness, ticks, and how to prevent carbon monoxide poisonings.
As much as possible, the Division of Environmental Health would like to create resources that support the changing public health needs where you are. For that reason, the Division of Environmental Health invites you to email them about the climate-related public health changes you are seeing and how they can support your work in addressing them. Please reach out to the MICHAP Health Educator, Stephanie White.
In coordination with the White House Summit on Building Climate Resilient Communities, the HHS Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE), and ASPR Geospatial Team launched the Climate and Health Outlook Portal, an interactive tool that provides actionable, county-level data that can be used to prepare for climate-related hazard events. Policymakers, health care providers, and the general public can use the tool to better understand the health impacts of climate-related hazard forecasts in their communities and plan accordingly. The portal builds on an OCCHE publication known as the Climate and Health Outlook, which links seasonal weather and hazard forecasts to health impacts. This beta version of the Climate and Health Outlook Portal features interactive maps showing county-level extreme heat, wildfire, and drought forecasts for the current month, along with county-level data on individual risk factors that may make people more vulnerable to negative health outcomes from these climate hazards. Future iterations of the tool will incorporate additional climate-related hazards and individual risk factors.
Last week, FEMA conducted a national test of the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) and the Emergency Alert System. FEMA is conducting a survey on the WEA portion of the test to help capture information about the geographic reach of the WEA Alert Message. Survey results will help FEMA and other WEA stakeholders, such as the Federal Communications Commission and public safety officials, enhance and expand WEA even further.
The results of a randomized trial indicate a universal decolonization strategy could cut infection-related hospitalization in nursing home residents.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that nursing homes that used a bathing routine to decolonize the skin and nasal passages of nursing home residents saw a significant reduction in infection-related hospitalization and all-cause hospitalization compared with nursing homes that didn't implement the strategy.
To ensure consistency across programs, ASPR will continue using the historical designation of “SLTT” when referencing state, local, tribal, and territorial jurisdictions. Effective Oct. 6, 2023, the SNS will ensure all internal and external correspondence referring to jurisdictional partners uses the SLTT abbreviation. As part of this effort, SNS is updating the name of its recently established office to the Office of State, Local, Tribal and Territorial (SLTT) Preparedness.
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