CDC has deactivated its emergency response for the Zika virus and will resume normal program operations. A team of experts from across the agency, called the Zika Coordination and Operations Transition Team (ZCOTT), will lead the transition from EOC activation to routine, long-term activities and will ensure timely coordination and collaboration on scientific, communication, and policy activities.
As we recognize September as National Preparedness Month, U.S. and international emergency personnel have been overwhelmed with responses to the hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and wildfires experienced in this month alone.
The U.S. has made considerable progress in its public health preparedness capability in the 16 years since the sixteen years after terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City, according to the American Journal of Public Health, which is releasing a special supplement on the subject.
Police are investigating the deaths of eight nursing home residents in Hollywood, Florida, where oppressive heat and humidity set in after Hurricane Irma knocked out much of the power in the area.
The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills said the residents, ages 71 to 99, died "following a prolonged outage of our air conditioning system due to Hurricane Irma."
Nearly a year ago, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) employee David Martinez saved the life of a co-worker by performing Hands-Only CPR, which he learned from watching an American Heart Association (AHA) training video. Martinez joined about 300 employees as they learned the same two-step lifesaving skill during a training which was provided through the Hands-Only CPR Mobile Tour presented by the AHA at the New York Transit Museum on Sept. 12.
More than 80,000 individual drones have been registered for commercial and government purposes and more than 60,000 people have obtained a Remote Pilot Certificate required to operate a drone, since the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) small unmanned aircraft rule, Part 107 (PDF), went into effect a year ago.
A group of first responders in Texas has filed a million dollar lawsuit against a chemical company, alleging that that they were injured by dangerous chemicals because the company failed to adequately prepare for Hurricane Harvey.
Here’s a sampling of news about Hurricane Irma, which has already been declared one of the most destructive storms in Atlantic History, and is expected to affect approximately 37 million people.
There are long lines at Florida gas stations and empty shelves in the state’s grocery stores, as residents both stock up on supplies and prepare to flee before Hurricane Irma makes its expected landfall sometime Sunday. Irma could then strike a blow at parts of Georgia and the Carolinas.
