Public Health Systems and Emerging Infections: Assessing the Capabilities of the Public and Private Sectors

Excerpt

In an effort to increase our knowledge and understanding of the role of the private and public health sectors in emerging infectious disease surveillance and response, this workshop, entitled Public Health Systems: Assessing Capacities to Respond to Emerging Infections, explored how the privatization of public health laboratories and the modernization of public health care may effect infectious disease surveillance and outbreak detection. A central theme running throughout the workshop was the problematical capacity of public health systems at the state and local levels to detect and respond to an infectious disease outbreak. The workshop served to open a dialogue on public health systems to identify and discuss issues of mutual concern among representatives from the affected parties and groups. These issues were broken down into the following four thematic areas, which addressed various components of the public health system: 1. epidemiological investigation; 2. surveillance; 3. communication, coordination, and education and outreach; and 4. strategic planning, resource allocation, and economic support.

Representatives from the public health community, hospitals, government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and academia were invited to give panel presentations moderated by Forum members. Each panelist was asked to highlight important issues, suggest possible practical solutions, and indicate impediments that must be overcome to improve infectious disease surveillance and response, communication and coordination, and education and outreach.