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Pilot Project to Develop a Comprehensive Community
  
Bio-Event Resilience Plan
 
BLUE CASCADES VI Infrastructure Interdependencies Exercise:
Focus—Public Health and Safety Resilience and a flood threat

Thursday, March 25, 2010
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Hilton Seattle Airport Conference Center
17620 International Boulevard
Seattle WA, 98188

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The Pacific Northwest Economic Region's Center for Regional Disaster Resilience and Puget Sound stakeholder organizations are working with the Office of Health Affairs, U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Science and Technology Division to develop a Comprehensive Community Bio-Event Resilience (CCBER) Project.  The Pilot Project will assist in the development of a national bio-defense architecture by serving as a model for communities and broader regions nation-wide to integrate the private sector, non-profits, and public institutions into preparedness planning for pandemics, bio-attacks, and other major health hazards.

Background

The anthrax attacks of October 2001, followed by the 2003 SARS epidemic and the recent Influenza A(H1N1) outbreak highlight the critical need for Comprehensive Community Bio-Event Resilience Plan that can provide a holistic approach to cover all aspects of preparedness, medical and other response (including surge capacity), recover and longer-term restoration needs.

A significant bio-event would challenge helathcare organizations with dramatic increases in patient load and reductions in available health and medical capacity while at the same time disrupting critical infrastructures and essential service providers on which healthcare organizations depend.  In addition, public health agencies must rapidly educate and inform the general population regarding health threats and appropriate protective measures, while maintaining a comprehensive surveillance system and directing medical countermeasure response.  As communities recover from disasters, they will experience further impacts if the continuity of critical services and systems, both public and private, is jeopardized due to key staff being absent.

Recognizing that private industry, businesses, and other non-governmental organizations constitute integral integral and essential components of every region, a Comprehensive Community Bio-Event Resilience Plan needs to be developed by the health care sector and other organizations with roles in emergency management in partnership with the private sector and other key regional stakeholders.
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