by Lloyd F. Novick, MD, MPH

The issue focus is disaster preparedness, beginning with an article “Containment of Ebola and Polio in Low-Resource Settings Using Principles and Practices of Emergency Operations Centers in Public Health.” The lead author is Faisal Shuaib who served as the head of the Nigeria Ebola Operations Center during the July-October 2014 outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease in Nigeria. The article ascribes the successful Ebola response in Nigeria to political commitment, engagement of the population, and effective use of an Emergency Operations Center. Sell and colleagues describe concerns in the United States about a potential Ebola outbreak linked to the 2014-2015 Ebola epidemic in West Africa. They outline the various state policies concerning management of individuals within the US who may have been exposed to Ebola, including a description of some states enacting aggressive quarantine policies and movement restriction.
Behrooz Behbob, Environmental Change Department, Public Health England, describes the mechanism of health registers in five nations — England, France, Italy, Netherlands, and the US — for the management and prevention of public health impacts following major environmental incidents. A register is a compilation of records of individuals with standardized data that can be used as a tool for public health response in a range of disasters, including chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or natural. Other articles in the issue deal with hospital evacuation following Hurricane Sandy, factors associated with disaster resilient communities, use of volunteers in emergencies, congregate disaster shelters, and mass fatality incidents.
Lloyd F. Novick, MD, MPH is the Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice and Professor Emeritus of the Department of Public Health at the Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University. Follow him on Twitter. [Full Bio]
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