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A national symposium on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, moderated by ASTHO CEO Dr. Joseph Kanter and attended by many ASTHO members, discussed many aspects of the virus; Dr. Janice Phillips, assistant director at the Illinois Department of Public...
A national symposium on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, moderated by ASTHO CEO Dr. Joseph Kanter and attended by many ASTHO members, discussed many aspects of the virus; Dr. Janice Phillips, assistant director at the Illinois Department of Public Health, discusses their 30 Days of Public Health Campaign; and ASTHO has a webinar focused on leveraging syndromic surveillance to promote health equity for people with disabilities.
ASTHO Webpage: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Scientific Symposium
ASTHO Webinar: Defining Disability for Syndromic Surveillance – Data to Action
ASTHO Webinar: Defining Disability for Syndromic Surveillance – Data to Action Technical Assistance
JANSON SILVERS:
This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Monday, April 29, 2024. I'm Janson Silvers. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
VIVIEN DUGAN:
Our goal is to delve deeper into the current body of knowledge surrounding HPAI. To discuss what is currently known, what is the data that underpins that current base of knowledge, and what areas still need to be discovered and what work is ongoing towards that end.
SILVERS:
That's ASTHO's CEO Dr. Joseph Kanter kicking off a national symposium on highly pathogenic avian influenza last week, Kanter moderated the event, which included subject matter experts and five different panels. Dr. Rosemary Sifford from the USDA gave an overview of the current situation from the animal health perspective.
ROSEMARY SIFFORD:
There has been a global outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza that has been ongoing for a few years now among the poultry operations around the world. The United States has been about a year behind Europe in our experience with this virus.
SILVERS:
ASTHO members Dr. Susan Kansagra, Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, and ASTHO President Elect, Dr. Scott Harris, all contributed to the symposium. Here's ASTHO Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Marcus Plescia, starting a discussion during the virus characterization and public health countermeasures panel.
MARCUS PLESCIA:
You know one of the challenges we have with COVID-19 was when we had to shift our messaging a bit. The vaccine protects from severe illness but not necessarily from infection altogether. Do you anticipate it'd be a similar situation with vaccines for H5N1? And is that something we should be a little clearer about?
SILVERS:
Here's how Dr. Vivien Dugan, the director of the influenza division of the CDC responded.
VIVIEN DUGAN:
Really all depends on that clinical severity, I would expect it at the lowest level of excitation, we would be also to provide that protection against death and hospitalization. That said, there are you know, instances where we prevent burden, right. And so we track that every year for seasonal. It's hard to say what a vaccine for age five might look like. But certainly I would expect it would be as good hopefully as a seasonal lesson.
SILVERS:
The two and a half hour symposium has much more information on the subjects with additional HPAI countermeasures, as well as milk safety involving HPAI, you can access a full recording of the event in the show notes.
Leaders at the Illinois Department of Public Health wanted to do more than just one week of recognition for National Public Health Week, which is the first week of April. Here's the assistant director, Dr. Janice Phillips to explain.
JANICE PHILLIPS:
We want you to really do something big create a big showcase about our workforce at the statewide and local levels. And one of our senior leaders suggested that why not celebrate 30 days with public health.
SILVERS:
Philips says they had a couple of different goals for their 30 days of public health campaign.
PHILLIPS:
We came up with ways to highlight the various ways that our public health workers make our state a better place to live on a daily basis. And our second goal was to really kind of help our recruitment efforts. You know, we really want the young people in particular, to know about the different roles in public health.
SILVERS:
The campaign has gone so well. They're not stopping at the end of the month.
PHILLIPS:
I think we're going to find some of these activities, particularly those stories. They are going to be featured beyond just April, because we have so many and we want to make sure that we give our listening, reading, whatever audience, the constituents, Illinoisans, we want them to experience it all.
SILVERS:
Learn more about the campaign by using the link in the show notes. Also today an opportunity to learn more about how defining disability can affect public health. O'Keyla Cooper has more.
O'KEYLA COOPER:
Join ASTHO today from four to five p.m. Eastern Time for a webinar focusing on leveraging syndromic surveillance to promote health equity for people with disabilities during public health emergencies. also attend a technical assistance office hour tomorrow April 30, from four to five p.m. Eastern Time for practical tools and approaches. Register for both events using the link in the show notes.
SILVERS:
Finally, this morning, stay connected to all the latest and public health news. When you sign up for ASTHO's Public Health Weekly email newsletter, the link is in the show notes. That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Janson Silvers. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.
