WASHINGTON — Most states are not prepared to handle outbreaks of severe infectious diseases, according to a new report by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
“Outbreaks: Protecting Americans from Infectious Diseases” found that half the states, including Maine, and the District of Columbia scored five or lower out of a possible 10 on measures related to the prevention, diagnosis, detection and response to disease outbreaks.
Maryland, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia led all states, each scoring eight out of 10.
California, Delaware, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were next, scoring seven out of 10.
Arkansas had the nation’s lowest score with two, followed by Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, Ohio and Wyoming, which each scored a three.
The recent Ebola cases in Dallas were a reminder “we cannot afford to let our guard down” in preparing for major outbreaks, said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the trust, a nonprofit health advocacy organization dedicated to disease prevention.
“Over the last decade, we have seen dramatic improvements in state and local capacity to respond to outbreaks and emergencies,” Levi said. “But we also saw during the recent Ebola outbreak that some of the most basic infectious disease control policies failed when tested.”
Maine scored four out of 10 on key indicators related to responding to disease outbreaks. The state has planned for the impact of climate change on human health, performed drills to handle emerging threats at its public health lab, tracked key HIV/AIDS data and promptly tested cases of E. coli, according to the report. But Maine fell short on the six other measures.
The report found that a majority of adults, 35 percent of seniors and more than 2 million preschoolers didn’t have all their recommended vaccinations. Only 14 states vaccinated 50 percent of their residents against the flu last year.
Only 16 states performed better than the national average for health care-related bloodstream infections, and only 10 cut the number of these infections between 2011 and 2012.
The report concluded it was time to modernize the nation’s health system to deal with current and emerging disease threats. This requires shoring up a number of core functions, such as investigative and training resources, containment and risk communication strategies and supplies of vaccines and medicines.
It also recommended integrating the operation of hospitals and public health agencies and improving federal, state and local leadership.
___
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. BDN Health Editor Jackie Farwell contributed to this report.