Public health branch incident management and support as part of the Federal Government response during the emergency phase of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Emerg Manag
• Personal Author:
  Cruz, Miguel Angel ; Rivera-González, Luis O. ; Irvin-Barnwell, Elizabeth ; Cabrera-Marquez, Jessica ; Ellis, Esther ; Ellis, Brett ; Qi, Benjamin ; Maniglier-Poulet, Christopher ; Gerding, Justin Andrew ; Shumate, Alice ; Andujar, Ashley ; Yoder, Jonathan ; Laco, Joseph ; Santana, Alberto ; Bayleyegn, Tesfaye ; Luna-Pinto, Carolina ; Rodriguez, Luis Orlando ; Roth, Joseph ; Bermingham, John ; Funk, Renée H. ; Raheem, Murad
• Description:
  On September 6 and 20, 2017, Hurricanes Irma and Maria made landfall as major hurricanes in the US Caribbean Territories of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico with devastating effects. As part of the initial response, a public health team (PHT) was initially deployed as part of the US Department of Health and Human Services Incident Response Coordination Team. As a result of increased demands for additional expertise and resources, a public health branch (PHB) was established for coordinating a broad spectrum of public health response activities in support of the affected territories. This paper describes the conceptual framework for organizing these activities; summarizes some key public health activities and roles; outlines partner support and coordination with key agencies; and defines best practices and areas for improvement in disaster future operations.
• Subjects:
  Cyclonic Storms Federal Government Humans Public Health Puerto Rico United States Virgin Islands
• Keywords:
  Disaster Assessments Emergency Management Environmental Health Natural Disasters Public Health
• Source:
  J Emerg Manag. 19(8):63-77
• Pubmed ID:
  36239499
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC11194540
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  19
• Issue:
  8
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:548eb6a83e8934834d577591a2c23c9d7dc9f8cd5c549825dc4775b9d01962ac
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/158151/cdc_158151_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 146.65 KB ]