Much like the unbridled spirit of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) /Department for Public Health (DPH) has an unbridled commitment to the health and safety of all Kentuckians. In any incident of national significance – outbreaks of disease, natural disasters or acts of terrorism, including biological warfare – citizens need to know where to go for answers.
Since 2001, Kentucky’s DPH has received federal funds through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for public health emergency preparedness and planning. CHFS/DPH collaborates with local health departments, emergency management, hospitals and other organizations to increase the preparedness of the Commonwealth.
What happens if there is a bioterrorism attack? The Franklin County Health Department,
working with local and state partners and the federal government, has an active plan in place
if this situation were to occur. The federal government has stockpiled vaccines, antibiotics
and medical supplies across the country that are needed to treat victims of a possible bioterrorism
incident. Under the leadership of the preparedness planner, the Franklin County
Health Department has completed the following activities:
- Volunteer Nurse Corps (VNC)
In our community the Franklin County Health Department has been training and preparing to
respond to such an incident. One of our challenges has been to recruit nurses to join a volunteer
nurse corps (VNC). We completed training for our first class with 37 nurses attending
all four phases of bioterrorism awareness training. The VNC will serve to supplement the
staff already assigned to work at designated sites that will treat thousands of people if necessary.
Future classes will begin in October 2005.
- Emergency Operations Plan (EOP)
On May 4, 2005 the health department conducted a bioterrorism exercise using one of the
top five category A agents-anthrax. Exercising our emergency operation plan (EOP), our
employees and other partners in the community responded appropriately for this drill. We
utilized all our resources to demonstrate that we could set up one of our designated sites and
follow our plan to prepare for mass treatment of our citizens.
- National Incident Management System (NIMS)
On September 8, 2004, the office of Homeland Security issued a directive to each governor
outlining the need to implement the National Incident Management System (NIMS). The
national NIMS framework provides a consistent nationwide approach for federal, state and
local governments to work effectively and efficiently to prepare for, prevent, respond to and
recover from a domestic incident regardless of cause, size or complexity. On December 7,
2004, Governor Fletcher signed an executive order establishing NIMS as the state standard
for incident management. To date the health department has trained over 90% of its full
time staff on NIMS.
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