In the face of a pandemic influenza threat, local health department employees' unwillingness to report to duty may pose a threat to the nation's emergency response infrastructure. Addressing the specific factors associated with this unwillingness is necessary to help ensure that existing local health department preparedness competencies [15] will translate into the scope of response described in the nation's pandemic influenza plans [2] . Interventions suggested to enhance the willingness of healthcare workers in non-public health department settings to report to duty in disasters include workforce preparedness education [5] , provision of appropriate personal protective equipment, [4, 14] crisis counseling, family preparedness and social support [5, 16] .