Respirators and surgical masks for infection control have been strongly suggested and even temporarily made mandatory in some places by the Chinese government, but no U.S. authority has done the same. This hasn’t stopped people from buying up N95 masks from all over the United States.

This New York Times article attempts to cut through the headlines and use a simple concept called the “epidemic triangle.” Employed by epidemiologists since the discipline’s earliest days, it is indispensable in predicting whether localized outbreaks will transform into full-blown epidemics.

A man is in isolation at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington after returning home to Washington state after a trip to Wuhan China on Jan. 15, 2020. This is the first case in the U.S. of an infection with a new coronavirus, named 2019-nCoV, which causes respiratory symptoms like pneumonia. Cases have also… Read more »

A new virtual toolkit from NIOSH is intended to help protect first responders from exposure to illicit drugs. Illicit drugs include fentanyl, opioids, cocaine, cannabinoids, methamphetamines, heroin, cathinone, etc. This free resource features sharable training videos, infographics, and postcards.

The Shaken Fury Exercise focused on a simulated major earthquake in Memphis, Tennessee that will impact middle America including the state of Alabama. The exercise was designed to test communications, situational awareness systems and networks; simulate coordinated responses during structural damage and life-threatening mass casualty incidents; and coordinate responses to a HAZMAT incident caused by the earthquake.

Recently, a Swedish hospital was reminded of the critical need for Ebola preparedness. A patient arrived at the Skane University Hospital on September 30, 2019, running a high fever after traveling in a region of Africa stricken by Ebola. The hospital placed the patient in isolation after discovering the patient’s travel history to an area where Ebola is present, and a fever.

Rising temperatures from climate change pose a threat to military personnel, both at home and abroad. There have been a total of 11,452 heat injury incidents reported U.S. Armed Forces Military bases from 2014-2018. And since 2008, according to the Pentagon, at least 17 troops have died due to of heat exposure during training exercises… Read more »

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), citing evidence in a peer-reviewed study, has added a new step to its decontamination guidance for chemical incidents. It calls for exposed people to first wipe themselves off with dry, absorbent materials, such as towels or washcloths before they pass through a water spray. “Disrobing and dry… Read more »

The World Health Organization has declared the Congo’s Ebola Epidemic as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). The committee sited recent developments where the first confirmed Ebola case occurred in Goma, a heavily populated provincial capital in the Democratic Republic of Congo with an airport with international flights. It is the second-largest Ebola… Read more »

The 2019 National Healthcare Security Index has been released. The scores indicate the ability to protect the health security of Americans from incidents like newly emerging infectious diseases, terrorism, and extreme weather conditions at the state and national levels. Healthcare emergency preparedness in the United States has improved significantly over the past six years according… Read more »