Katrina reveals fatal weaknesses in US public health
The Lancet: "Katrina reveals fatal weaknesses in US public health
The terrorist attacks that struck the USA on Sept 11, 4 years ago, obliterated the American people's trust in their intelligence services. Last week, Hurricane Katrina did the same for any illusions held by the people—or indeed the government—that the country was adequately prepared to cope with a large-scale public-health emergency.
Since 2001, fears for the future safety of the US population have focused on one thing alone: the potential dangers a bioterror attack could unleash. This obsession catapulted the issue of America's decaying public-health infrastructure from a state concern to a crisis that involved the entire nation. The worry was justified.
A damning report issued in 2002 by the Institute of Medicine claimed that governmental public-health agencies had long suffered “grave underfunding and political neglect”. It criticised the country's “obsolete and inconsistent laws and regulations” governing public health, and derided the fragmentation of health responsibility, shared among officials at all levels of government. The uneven distribution of resources within the “increasingly fragile” health sector meant, the report claimed, that the health system would be unable to manage a large-scale emergency. Ironically, of only five cities visited by the authors during the report's preparation, one was New Orleans." /.../
The terrorist attacks that struck the USA on Sept 11, 4 years ago, obliterated the American people's trust in their intelligence services. Last week, Hurricane Katrina did the same for any illusions held by the people—or indeed the government—that the country was adequately prepared to cope with a large-scale public-health emergency.
Since 2001, fears for the future safety of the US population have focused on one thing alone: the potential dangers a bioterror attack could unleash. This obsession catapulted the issue of America's decaying public-health infrastructure from a state concern to a crisis that involved the entire nation. The worry was justified.
A damning report issued in 2002 by the Institute of Medicine claimed that governmental public-health agencies had long suffered “grave underfunding and political neglect”. It criticised the country's “obsolete and inconsistent laws and regulations” governing public health, and derided the fragmentation of health responsibility, shared among officials at all levels of government. The uneven distribution of resources within the “increasingly fragile” health sector meant, the report claimed, that the health system would be unable to manage a large-scale emergency. Ironically, of only five cities visited by the authors during the report's preparation, one was New Orleans." /.../
posted by Aloyzio Achutti at 9:17 AM
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