**August 7, 2007 FEMA Emergency Management Higher Education Project
Report**

\(1\) AGING INFRASTRUCTURE:

Saulney, Susan and Jennifer Steinhauer. \"Bridge Collapse Revives Issue
of Road Spending.\" New York Times, August 7, 2007.

[[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/us/07highway.html?\_r=1&hp&oref=slogin]{.underline}](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/us/07highway.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin)

\(2\) EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT HIGHER EDUCATION CONFERENCE, JUNE 2-5, 2008:

Had a long telephone conversation with Carol Cwiak at North Dakota State
University concerning the conference development and support group which
she coordinates. Discussed a wide variety of topics that might be
discussed at the next EM HiEd Conference. Agreed that it would be a good
idea to continue recent practice of coming up with an overall conference
theme \-- though we did not come up with one during this conversation.
Suggestions are welcome.

\(3\) PANDEMIC:

Received today a CDC Press Release entitled \"Community Measures Prevent
Deaths During Pandemic, New Study Finds.\"

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Interim Pre-pandemic
Planning Guidance: Community Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Mitigation
in the United States - Early, Targeted, Layered Use of Nonpharmaceutical
Interventions. Atlanta, GA: CDC, August 7, 2007, 97 pages. Accessed

at:
[[http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/community/community_mitigation.pdf]{.underline}](http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/community/community_mitigation.pdf)

\[Press release excerpt: \"School closures and other community
strategies designed to reduce the possibility of spreading disease
between people during an epidemic can save lives, particularly when the
measures are used in combination and implemented soon after an outbreak
begins in a community, according to a new study based on public records
from the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic.

The findings, which are published in the Aug. 8 issue of the Journal of
the American Medical Association, provide vital clues to help public
officials planning for the next influenza pandemic and highlight the
importance of community strategies. These strategies are particularly
important because the intervention most likely to provide the best
protection against pandemic influenza \-- a vaccine \-- is unlikely to
be available at the outset of a pandemic. Community strategies that
delay or reduce the impact of a pandemic (also called non-pharmaceutical
interventions) may help reduce the spread of disease until a vaccine
that is well-matched to the virus is available\....

\"Communities that were most successful during the 1918 pandemic quickly
enacted a variety of measures,\" said Dr. Martin Cetron, director of
CDC\'s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine and senior author of
the study. \"Those planning for the next pandemic need to carefully
consider how to best use these strategies to protect people and decrease
the potential impact of the next pandemic in their communities.\"

These strategies - voluntary isolation and quarantine, dismissal of
students from school classrooms, and social distancing in the workplace
and community - form the basis for CDC\'s guidelines for how American
communities can empower themselves to confront the next influenza
pandemic.

The JAMA study evaluated public health measures such as school closures
and cancellation of public events, which 43 American cities took during
the 1918 pandemic. The researchers sought to determine whether the
timing, duration and combination of such measures impacted the city\'s
death rate during the pandemic. To determine the public health
measures\' effectiveness, the researchers analyzed each city\'s excess
death rate - the number of pneumonia and influenza deaths in excess of
the amount expected for the time period.

During a 24-week period in 1918-1919, more than 115,000 excess pneumonia
and influenza deaths in the 43 cities were attributed to the pandemic.
Cities that began interventions earlier had more success in decreasing
excess deaths than those that implemented the measures later, regardless
of how long the later interventions were in place or how they were
executed.

In a telling example, New York City\'s early and sustained response,
including isolation and quarantine and staggered business hours,
resulted in the lowest excess death rate for any city on the East Coast
during the time period reviewed. By contrast, Pittsburgh was well into
its outbreak before implementing the interventions and experienced the
highest excess death rate of any of the 43 cities\....

The interventions assessed fell into three major categories: school
closures, bans on public gatherings and isolation of sick people and
quarantine of their healthy household contacts. The most common approach
was closing schools combined with banning public gatherings. All but
three of the 43 communities closed schools during the 24-week period
studied.\"\]

For more information the CDC Press Release recommends going to the
following document:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Interim Pre-pandemic
Planning Guidance: Community Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Mitigation
in the United States - Early, Targeted, Layered Use of Nonpharmaceutical
Interventions. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC, February
2007, 97 pages. Accessed at:

[[http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/community/community_mitigation.pdf]{.underline}](http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/community/community_mitigation.pdf)

B.Wayne Blanchard, Ph.D., CEM

Higher Education Project Manager

Emergency Management Institute

National Emergency Training Center

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Department of Homeland Security

16825 S. Seton, K-011

Emmitsburg, MD 21727

\(301\) 447-1262, voice

\(301\) 447-1598, fax

wayne.blanchard@dhs.gov

[[http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu]{.underline}](http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu)

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