Report hits state's emergency preparedness following H1N1 mess

Illinois ranks among the bottom 20 states in health emergency response, concludes a new report that says this year's H1N1 outbreak exposed "serious underlying gaps" in the nation's preparedness.

Illinois met standards in six out of 10 key indicators, the analysis released today found.

The annual report, "Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism," was produced by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

It found that the H1N1 flu outbreak, also known as swine flu, has exposed "serious underlying gaps" in the nation's ability to respond to public health emergencies.

Illinois was found lacking in four areas:

• Public health lab capacity to assure timely delivery of disease samples around the clock.

• Ability to identify pathogens that caused food-borne illness outbreaks at the national rate of 46 percent.

• Requiring all licensed day-care facilities to write an evacuation and relocation plan for emergencies.

• Has a law or legal opinion in place to limit liability against organizations that provide volunteers during emergencies.

The state did get positive scores in six other criteria, including:

• Purchased 50 percent or more of its share of federally subsidized antiviral medications for pandemic flu.

• Kept track of available hospital beds during the H1N1 flu virus outbreak.

• Public health labs have enough staff to work overtime in an emergency like H1N1.

• Meets the Medical Reserve Corps readiness criteria for volunteers in an emergency.

• Increased or maintained funding for public health services.

The preparedness indicators were developed with public health experts based on public information.

Illinois Department of Public Health officials are going over the report today and preparing a response.

Nationally, the report found that public health investments in recent years dramatically improved U.S. readiness for the H1N1 outbreak. But it also found that chronic underfunding meant that many core systems were not ready.

Key concerns were a lack of real-time disease surveillance and testing, outdated vaccine production, limited hospital surge capacity, and a shrinking public health work force.

In response, the nonprofit, nonpartisan sponsors called for further evaluation of lessons learned from the H1N1 flu outbreak.

They also recommended increased federal funding, modernized vaccine production, and additional measures to reach out quickly to high-risk populations.

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