Emergency situation occurs when hazards threaten the safety and well-being of the community. Ironically, hazards exist around us, and there are always risks that these hazards escalate to a level where emergency situation needs to be declared. Without proper management, emergency situation can escalate to a disaster. The idea of emergency preparedness is to prevent hazard from threatening the community, and responding to an emergency situation so that disaster can be prevented.
New York City is home of more than 8 million people, and this city is not immune to hazards. In fact, the city officials recognize 12 hazards consisting of building collapse; carbon monoxide; coastal storms and hurricanes; disease outbreaks; earthquakes; extreme heat; fire; flooding; hazardous materials and radiation; severe weather; utility disruption; and winter weather .
New York City experienced West Nile Virus disease outbreak in 1999 which was never reported previously. The hazards in this case were the virus and mosquito vector. The first responses were initial epidemiological and environmental investigations that pointed to an arboviral cause. The subsequent response was active surveillance to identify the presence of this virus in the patients, and the later stage response was to alert physicians and to consider West Nile Virus infection in diagnosing patients showing encephalitis and viral meningitis . The New York City OEM now publishes procedures for West Nile Virus hazard, and these procedures consist of preventing mosquito bite and reducing mosquito presence. In addition to the West Nile Virus, New York City Office of Emergency Management (2014) recognizes other disease hazards such as pandemic flu, avian flu, and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
The availability of this material on line shows that the City of New York is well aware of the hazards and has put some efforts to produce and publish relevant standard operating procedures. The high level of preparedness of the city officials towards disease outbreak hazards is also shown by the development of syndromic surveillance as a standard public health practice for early detection mechanism . However, the effectiveness of emergency response depends on the competence of public health workforce , as well as the public knowledge and attitudes. This needs to be achieved through continuous socializations and training programs, as these programs ensure that both public and public health workforce respond well to the disease outbreak emergency.
Works Cited
Heffernan, R., Mostashari, F., Das, D., Karpati, A., Kulldorrf, M., & Weiss, d. (2004). Syndromic Surveillance in Public Health Practice, New York City. Emerging Infectious Diseases 10(5), 858-864.
Nash, D., Mostashari, F., Fine, A., Miller, J., O'Leary, D., Murray, K., . . . Layton, M. (2001). The Outbreak of West Nile Virus Infection in The New York City Area in 1999. The New England Journal of Medicine 344(24), 1807-1814.
New York City Office of Emergency Management. (2014, January 28). NYC OEM. Retrieved from NYC OEM: http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/html/hazards/hazards.shtml
Qureshi, K. A., Gershon, R., Merrill, J. A., Calero-Breckheimer, A., Murrman, M., Gebbie, K. M., . . . Sherman, M. (2004). Effectiveness of an Emergency Preparedness Training Program for Public Health Nurses in New York City. Family & Community Health 27(3), 242-249.
