February 20, 2008

The Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) continues to be a national leader in public health emergency preparedness according to the Public Health Emergency Preparedness report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Michigan scored top marks on the CDC report in the areas of detection and reporting of diseases, laboratory preparedness, and response capabilities. MDCH recently created the Drug Delivery and Resource Utilization Network (MEDDRUN) to bridge the gap between available medical resources through caches of medications pre-deployed around the state. In addition to receiving special recognition in the CDC report, MEDDRUN also received second place from the ASH Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in a national competition for innovative homeland-security based programs.

Since the reporting period (August 2005 to August 2006), MDCH has continued to make significant enhancements to state and local public health readiness programs that distribute medicines, promote effective and efficient coordination of response activities among response partners, and assure the provision of essential public health and health care services to the public in the event of a public health emergency.

In 2007, the CDC evaluated Michigan's readiness to deploy the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), which is a large quantity of medicine and medical supplies to protect the American public if there is a public health emergency (terrorist attack, flu outbreak, earthquake) severe enough to cause local supplies to run out. The CDC awarded Michigan one of the highest marks in the nation with a score of 95 percent for their SNS preparedness initiatives.

MDCH and the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) jointly developed and launched the Pandemic Influenza Toolkit for Educators. This online resource provides materials for pre-school, elementary, middle, and high schools, information on what Michigan and other states are doing to prepare, links to partners, and links to information on avian influenza. The Toolkit has earned a National Best Practice Award from the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. The kit is free and available online at http://mdch.train.org/panflu/education.

MDCH and its public health emergency response partners train and regularly conduct exercises to test emergency response plans, procedures, and personnel. Response performance is evaluated and operational procedures are enhanced in a continuous effort to maintain the highest level of state readiness. Michigan is proud of the status of health preparedness and will continue to work to plan, train, and exercise programs statewide.