There’re many pandemic emergency preparedness meetings/presentations being offered during this event which takes place from Nov 4th-8th in the new Boston Convention & Exhibit Ctr.
http://apha.org/meetings/index.htm
Emergency preparedness, pandemic, quarantine and human rights issues, voluntary compliance, hospital capacities, epidemiological surveillance methods, planning at federal, state, and local levels etc.
I had to find the schedule of programs by registering w/a personal planner via the link below. Doing so allowed me to better organize the meetings I’m interested in attending. Each meeting contains several short topic meetings within it.
http://apha.confex.com/apha/134am/scheduler/top.cgi?page=register
Cheers.
thanks Posie. I was able to see what was offered without registering…browsed thru what was offered by topic-you can also go by session/day. For catagorise they use the word (“section”. I was surprised, layperson that I am, that there was no one “Section” for Pandemic Flu. Given the recent report that experts on average think there is a 15% chance of pandemic hitting within three years, I would think it important that it be more prominant. I found alot of the presentations under
Here is a good one for example: “3310.0: Monday, November 6, 2006: 2:30 PM-4:00 PM Planning For Pandemic Influenza: Local, State, Tribal and Federal Perspectives. It actually is one of the only ones I saw that has the term Pandemic in the title of the talk. The other ones use terms like planning for epidemics, public health disasters, emergencies etc…then when you click on it and read more about what is being presented, often a least ONE of the speakers will be speaking about Pandemic flu.
IT’s just strikes me as strange that the Pandemic Flu situation isn’t more Prominant. I know there are many competing public health issues…but seems to me this is one of the BIG ONES of our time.
I am sure it will be a great meeting to attend but it seems to me one would have to be focussed on FINDING those sessions to be exposed to their importance. I hope it is my relative lack of computer skills or experience with such things that leads me to that conclussion. American Public Heath Association meeting…doesn’t seem like pandemic flu possiblity is huge given at least the interface that I was able to access myself. I hope it is my lack of skill and it doesn’t seem that way to others.
So sorry about typo’s. I found most of the Pandemic talks under “Community Health Planning and Policy Development” section. Is anyone else surprised at the lack of “front and center” place of Pandemic Flu at this meeting…isnt the American Public Health Association one of the big ones in Public Health in the US? DOes anyone have the reaction I do or any idea why this is?
I don’t know, keep it low on the public/media radar?
I think I’ve passed up on a chance to get in the building, partly because I don’t see it getting anything out to the public about prepping now,
and partly, because the ammount of people who travel extensively all being in one place makes my irony/fear factor go off.
;-)
I put this in the News thread the other day:
APHA Launches Get Ready Campaign to Help Americans Prepare Themselves for Flu Pandemic APHA has officially launched its Get Ready campaign to help the public prepare for a potential influenza pandemic and outbreaks of other emerging infectious diseases. Unlike existing efforts, APHA’s campaign will speak directly to individuals, families and communities and help fill gaps by telling people exactly what they need in order to prepare themselves. Currently, the campaign includes a blog, fact sheets and podcasts available through the Get Ready Web site at http://www.getreadyforflu.org . Future plans for the campaign include grassroots activities, toolkits, community partnerships, preparedness surveys and a calculator to help people determine what supplies they will need to prepare for pandemic flu or other emerging infectious diseases.
Just hope it doesn’t get buried in all their other work. I wonder how they will make it public. If HCWs in all city and state public health department are members, that would help, but I don’t know if that is the case.
This is a good site to direct people to. I thought it was well done, simple, but keeps the message straight. For any of you directing others to information, especially beginners, this is a good palce to start.
Mods - do we have this link posted somewhere?
jplanner, i don’t know, but am seeing this pandemic awareness involvement pick-up considerably both within and outside the university.
i’m thinking the reason it’s not receiving more prominence at an event like this is due to 1.) it being such a new subject, these things unfortunately seem to require some time to get off the ground, and 2.) funding issues. much of the emergency prep stuff you’re seeing has to be couched in emergency prep or bioterrorism due to funding sources. a program is more likely to receive funding if they’re able to couch it in terms of general preparedness (and/or bioterrorism) due to the apparent uncertainty surrounding potential pandemic. therefore, tho pandemic may underlie many of the programs listed on the APHA schedule of events, you’re more likely to see it listed in terms of more general E-Prep measures/information.
personally, i’m under the impression everyone involved w/E-Prep at whatever levels, realizes its most often lately pandemic prep they’re discussing.
for instance, i had the opportunity to attend a debris management meeting at a local PH office (i’m an intern doing independent study on an E-Prep program). of course they were discussing debris w/respect to storms and such, however…another aspect of this involves interment of bodies in mass graves in a way that they can be exhumed, identified, and reburied during a large-scale disaster. no one mentioned panflu, but there were statements made such as, “when this happens…IF it happens…”, and we all know without saying they’re discussing panflu. there are many issues regarding funding i don’t completely understand at this point, but impress very much upon the terms/language under which much planning’s taking place.
Jane, thank you for directing us to this web site.
cheers, all.
just a reminder, the APHA Conference begins November 4th:
APHA Annual Meeting Nov 4–8, 2006 in Boston: http://www.apha.org/meetings/index.htm
some relevant sessions:
Status Day Start Time End Time Show Locations Session # Paper # Title Notes
Monday 8:30 AM 10:00 AM 3020 KATRINA, RESPONDING TO A PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY: THE EVENT AND THE AFTERMATH Note Monday 10:30 AM 12:00 PM 3106 EMERGENCY RESPONSE TOOLS FOR COMMUNITY PLANNERS Note Monday 12:30 PM 1:30 PM 3158 ENSURING FOOD SAFETY, EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND DISEASE PREVENTION Note Monday 2:30 PM 4:00 PM 3310 PLANNING FOR PANDEMIC INFLUENZA: LOCAL, STATE, TRIBAL AND FEDERAL PERSPECTIVES Note Monday 4:30 PM 6:00 PM 3395 ASSESSING AND TRAINING THE WORKFORCE FOR EPIDEMICS, DISASTERS AND BIOTERRORISM Note Tuesday 8:30 AM 10:00 AM 4039 EMERGENCY AND DISATER PREPAREDNESS I Note Tuesday 12:30 PM 1:30 PM 4087 DEVELOPING PUBLIC HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE TO ADDRESS ACTS OF BIOTERRORISM AND/OR PANDEMICS Note Tuesday 12:30 PM 2:00 PM 4118 DISASTER PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE: A HEALTH PLANNING APPROACH Note Tuesday 12:30 PM 2:00 PM 4129 QUARANTINE, ISOLATION AND OTHER HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES IN DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION Note Tuesday 2:30 PM 4:00 PM 4227 PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCIES AND HUMAN RIGHTS Note Tuesday 4:30 PM 6:00 PM 4300 EVALUATING PREPAREDNESS FOR EMERGENCY RESPONSES AND POST KATRINA LESSONS Note Wednesday 8:30 AM 10:00 AM 5055 EMERGENCY AND DISASTER PREPAREDNESS II Note Wednesday 2:30 PM 4:00 PM 5171 EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AT THE LOCAL OR STATE LEVEL Note
3310.0: Monday, November 6, 2006: 2:30 PM-4:00 PM Oral
Planning For Pandemic Influenza: Local, State, Tribal and Federal Perspectives
Continued outbreaks of avian influenza in an ever-growing number of countries raise the concern that an H5N1 influenza virus will evolve into a virus spreading efficiently from person to person and resulting in an influenza pandemic. Planning for such a pandemic poses many challenges at the federal, state, local and tribal levels, some of the key ones being the number of unknowns (epidemiology, availability of countermeasures, effectiveness of social distancing measures), the need to plan for response with local resources given the widespread nature of the event, the impact on the healthcare system, and possibly on other critical infrastructure, and the coordination of the large number of entities involved in planning and in response. Much of the response to pandemic influenza will unfold at the local level, so it is important that all communities engage in planning. The requirement for states to submit plans as part of CDC’s preparedness cooperative agreement in June 2005, the recent allocation of funds through that cooperative agreement, and the heightened level of attention to the potential for an influenza pandemic at the highest levels of government have resulted in substantial focus on planning for pandemic influenza at the state and local level. This session proposes to provide a federal, state, local and tribal perspective on selected current issues and activities. Learning Objectives: At the end of the session the participant will be able to: 1) Describe an approach to community engagement around prioritization of scarce resources, 2) Describe the role of local health departments in contrast to state health departments in pandemic response, 3) Describe the unique aspect of tribal planning 4) Describe current availability of vaccine and antiviral drugs Moderator(s): James A. Gaudino, MD, MS, MPH 2:30 PM Introductory Remarks
2:35 PM Planning for Pandemic Influenza: Federal Perspective Pascale Wortley, MD, MPH 2:50 PM Planning for Pandemic Influenza: State Perspective Susan M. Allan, MD, JD, MPH 3:10 PM Planning for Pandemic Influenza: Local Perspective Paul Etkind, DrPH, MPH 3:30 PM Planning for Pandemic Influenza: A Tribal Perspective Jim Roberts 3:50 PM Discussion
See individual abstracts for presenting author’s disclosure statement and author’s information. Organized by: Epidemiology Endorsed by: Academic Public Health Caucus; Community Health Planning and Policy Development; Maternal and Child Health CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing
Does anyone not a member want to be a Fluwiki correspondent and get a media pass for this conference? I don’t know how a blog reporter would get credentials…show his/her voluminous FW notes?
Sounds great!
I plan to attend on Monday and will be at those sessions mentioned above.
Can’t wait!
Moderator(s): James A. Gaudino, MD, MS, MPH 2:30 PM Introductory Remarks 2:35 PM Planning for Pandemic Influenza: Federal Perspective Pascale Wortley, MD, MPH 2:50 PM Planning for Pandemic Influenza: State Perspective Susan M. Allan, MD, JD, MPH 3:10 PM Planning for Pandemic Influenza: Local Perspective Paul Etkind, DrPH, MPH 3:30
All of them were sent emails about this site.
Oh and I posted comments on the Go Ready site.
Everyone should. If these guys are reading their own site it would be helpful.
Posie,
Have a great conference and please remember to tell us what you learnt!
Wonder how things are going?
My daughter said there were stickers and pens with “Prepare for Flu” on them, on the APHA table. (Or maybe it was “Get Ready for Flu” since that’s the title of their blog.) They are looking for corporate sponsors so they can do more, she said.
A story about the APHA conference (Boston Globe): The right to sutures, the right to generators are fundamental human rights, according to the founder of Partners in Health, Dr. Paul Farmer of Harvard University.
Look for the results on the roundtable presentation by Elizabeth Petit-Demange PhD. It’s about our efforts to get pandemic planning moving in our township.
Posie, Did you attend the conference? Was it good? Bad? Ugly? Do tell! ;)
Grace RN, can you lead me in the direction to find the Elizabeth Petit-Demange PhD roundtable.
Thanks Kate
Sorry it was today
http://apha.confex.com/apha/134am/techprogram/paper_140329.htm
I hope they post the presentations on the web. I would love to have gone but……
Wondering how the conference was Posie. SO glad you got to attend and report back to us. Hope you are doing ok?