Nebraska is tied for third in a report released Tuesday by Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) which graded the 50 states and the District of Columbia for bioterrorism preparedness.
The report examined 10 key indicators to gauge state preparedness and determine America’s overall readiness to respond to bioterrorist attacks and other health emergencies. No state scored a perfect 10. Nebraska scored eight out of 10 – along with Minnesota, New Hampshire and Virginia — because of an aging public health force and an insufficient number of level-three bioterrorism laboratories.
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9 – Florida, North Carolina |
This is the second year in a row that the nonprofit TFAH conducted a review of bioterrorism and public health preparedness.
Steven Hinrichs, M.D., director of the University of Nebraska Center for Biosecurity and professor in the department of pathology and microbiology at UNMC, said Nebraska is doing a good job of developing its bioterrorism preparedness program.
“Nebraskans should feel very good about where Nebraska stands in comparison with other states across the country,” Dr. Hinrichs said. “It’s really the approach that the governor took in naming Lt. Gov. Heineman the coordinator of the activities related to bioterrorism. The lieutenant governor has done an excellent job pulling everybody together and making sure everybody’s needs were identified, and while making sure the funds were distributed equitably. He has a strong team to work with to implement his plan.”
Dr. Hinrichs said areas of weakness identified in the report are being addressed by the state. When the report was being developed, Nebraska had only one Bio-safety Level laboratory 3 (BL-3), he said, and that was located at UNMC.
Soon, the state will have four BL-3 labs, he said, with labs in the Durham Research Center, the Nebraska Health and Human Services System’s water and food lab in Lincoln, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
“This report praises Nebraska, as well as identifies areas of improvement,” Dr. Hinrichs said. “We couldn’t have had achievements in these areas without the help of our congressional delegation in procuring funding for Nebraska and for the university. We are extremely appreciative of their support.”
Another concern on the report stated the public health workforce in Nebraska is on the brink of a “brain drain” as the baby boomers retire and next-generation recruitment efforts suffer, a problem that is common across the country.
“We’re very much aware of the progressive aging of the medical professional population in Nebraska,” Dr. Hinrichs said. “UNMC will continue to play a critical role in the training of new, young professionals. This report illustrates why it’s so important to have a top, high quality medical research university because the most important factor leading to the decision by young professionals to stay or to locate their practice, is the site at which they obtained their training.”
He said training programs such as medical technology and public health are critical to addressing this projected shortfall in the future.
“It will require diligent work on the part of the entire University of Nebraska system to make sure that Nebraska has enough trained health personnel over the next 20 years,” Dr. Hinrichs said.
Among the report’s major concerns:
- Nearly one-third of states cut their public health budgets between fiscal year 2003 and 2004 (Nebraska did not), and federal bioterrorism funding decreased by more than $1 million per state in 2004;
- Shifting federal priorities and programs are distracting from improvement efforts, and there is little, if any, accountability to the public;
- Only six states — Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, and three undisclosed states — have achieved “green” status for the Strategic National Stockpile, which means they are recognized as being adequately prepared to distribute vaccines and antidotes in an emergency;
∑ Only five public health labs report sufficient capabilities (facilities, technology, and/or equipment) to fully respond to a chemical terrorism threat (Nebraska is not one of them). Nebraska also is not among the one-third of states that report sufficient bioterrorism lab response capabilities;
- Nearly 60 percent of states do not have adequate numbers of laboratory scientists to test for anthrax or the plague if there were to be a suspected outbreak. Nebraska reports it has enough lab scientists available to run tests in the event of such an outbreak;
- Only one-third of the states including Nebraska electronically track disease outbreak information using national standards. Failure to track the information can cause serious delays in reporting, making early warning of disease threats difficult;
- The public health workforce is on the brink of a “brain drain” as the baby boomers retire and next-generation recruitment efforts suffer;
- Concerns remain that states are unprepared to implement a quarantine, although every state except Alaska has adequate statutory authority to quarantine in response to a hypothetical bioterrorism attack scenario;
- Although planning for a flu pandemic, which is often viewed as requiring a similar response to a bioterror attack, has improved, 20 states still do not have publicly available response plans in place. Nebraska has a publicly available plan; and
- Based on model estimates, a pandemic flu hitting the United States could result in 89,000 to 207,000 deaths and could cost the economy between $71.3 and $166.5 billion. According to these estimates, Nebraska could face 1,606 deaths and 6,859 people hospitalized in the first wave of the disease hitting the United States.