For those keeping track of plane crashes, I saw an IPN flash earlier regarding a small plane crash out in San Francisco.
And while searching for an answer to a question my son has regarding the smallpox movie aired by FX, I found the following news article. While I'm sure most, if not all of you, are aware that the plague is still around, here's the article just in case it's of interest to someone:
Article Published: Sunday, December 12, 2004
Pueblo man dies of plague caught while rabbit hunting
By The Denver Post
Pueblo - A 66-year-old Pueblo man has died from bubonic plague in what health officials said was the first death in Colorado from the disease since 1999.
The Pueblo City-County Health Department did not identify the man Friday, but the victim's son identified him as Howard Warren Champlain.
Champlain's son, Kris Champlain, said the family was awaiting further word from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The plague victim died Wednesday at a hospital after being infected while rabbit hunting in Park County, health department director Chris Nevin-Woods said. She said the man had an open wound on his hand and may have been exposed while skinning an infected rabbit.
His death was the third case of plague in Colorado this year.
Humans can get the disease through bites from infected fleas or from handling an infected animal.
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2592147,00.html
For those in Massachusetts:
Article Last Updated: Friday, December 24, 2004 - 7:13:21 AM EST
Study says Mass. is least prepared state to handle bioterroist attack
By Jennifer Fenn
Statehouse Bureau
BOSTON -- Massachusetts is the least prepared among all states to handle a bioterrorist attack, according to a new study.
State public health officials immediately refuted the results of the Trust of Public Health's report that ranked Massachusetts at the bottom of the heap nationwide.
Public Health Commissioner Christine Ferguson said the department does not feel the report "accurately reflects the true state of emergency preparedness" in the state.
"I am confident that the state is prepared to respond effectively to a bioterrorism event," she said in a statement.
"Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health in the Age of Bioterrorism -- 2004" examined key indicators to gauge state preparedness and determine the country's overall readiness to respond to bioterrorist attacks and other health emergencies.
The report ranked states based on whether they met 10 criteria. The criteria included such elements as the amount of state spending and federal aid allocated to public health, flu vaccine rates, and the number of scientists and laboratories available to test for anthrax or the plague.
The report found that despite some progress nationwide, there years after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Americans are still at risk, and Massachusetts, in particular, has not made enough strides.
Over two-thirds of states and Washington, D.C., achieved a score of six or less out of the 10 possible indicators. Massachusetts and Alaska received a three out of 10, the worst in the nation.
"This report found that more than three years after 9/11 and the anthrax tragedies, we've only made baby steps toward better bioterrorism preparedness, rather than the giant leaps required to adequately protect the American people," said Lowell Weicker, president of the trust's board. "The conclusions of this study demand an answer to the big question here: What will it take to make bioterrorism and public health preparedness a real national priority?"
Fitchburg Health Director Jeff Jerszyk said he thinks the Department of Public Health has been slow to implement its bioterrorism plan due to budget cuts and understaffing.
Jerszyk said the DPH has divided the state into 16 regional planning groups, but that it was three months late this year in distributing money to those groups. But at least the state is making an attempt, he said.
"They're making an attempt, but how the money comes down is extremely difficult," Jerszyk said. "It's slow in coming, but everybody's been working on it."
According to the report, Massachusetts is one of nearly one-third of states that cut the public health budget between fiscal years 2003 and 2004. The report said Massachusetts is not adequately prepared to distribute vaccines and antidotes in an emergency, is not capable of fully responding to a chemical terrorism threat and that it does not report sufficient bioterrorism laboratory response capabilities.
The report also said Massachusetts does not electronically track diseases outbreak information by national standards, which could cause serious delays in reporting and make early warning of disease threats difficult.
Nationally and in Massachusetts, funding was a key problem.
Officials of the Massachusetts Public Health Association, the state's leading public health advocacy organization, said cuts to public health funding was the main reason Massachusetts ranked so poorly in the study.
Between 2001 and 2003, the department's budget was cut by more than $156 million, association officials said.
"At just the time we should have been investing more heavily in public health, we were tearing our infrastructure apart," said Geoff Wilkinson, executive director of the health association.
Although the state did not fare well on the trust's report, Ferguson said an "objective outside evaluation" by the federal Centers for Disease Control on objective standards of 14 critical benchmarks of preparedness found that the state has demonstrated preparedness in 12.
However, she also said the trust's report did not fully explain the state's preparedness plan. She said the report does not hold each state to the same standards. For example, whether the state public health budget increased during the past two fiscal years includes Medicaid spending for some states while others only include public health, she said.
"While we are constantly working to improve our capacity and preparedness we have made significant progress since 9/11 to protect the health and safety of Massachusetts' residents," Ferguson said.
"By a uniform and equitable measure of comparison, Massachusetts is well prepared to respond to a public health emergency."