When Ebola finally landed on American soil, it shed light on just how prepared the United States was in dealing with infectious diseases. According to a report, the country's not actually very prepared, with just half of states ready for an outbreak.
The "Outbreaks: Protecting Americans from Infectious Diseases" report was released by the Trust for America's Health jointly with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It ranked states using 10 points representing preparedness, which included infection control in medical centers, vaccination rates, public health funding, climate change preparation efforts and means of tracking cases of E. Coli and HIV.
Based on these measures, only half of the states had scores higher than five. No state got a perfect score but five were tied at the top, all scoring 8. These states are Virginia, Vermont, Tennessee, Massachusetts and Maryland. At the bottom of the pack with a score of 2 is Arkansas.
"Over the last decade, we have seen dramatic improvements in state and local capacity to respond to outbreaks and emergencies. But we also saw during the recent Ebola outbreak that some of the most basic infectious disease controls failed when tested," said Jeffrey Levi, PhD, TFAH executive director.
He added that the Ebola outbreak reminded the United States that it cannot let its guard down. It must remain vigilant to prevent and control emerging threats. Ongoing, highly dangerous and disruptive diseases must also not be disregarded.
Levi also attributed the paltry preparation of some states to complacency and the tendency to only focus on the most recent, most alarming threats while compromising defenses against other illnesses.
Infectious diseases threatening the country are categorized into four: traditional infectious diseases like flu, whooping cough and mumps; chronic infectious diseases like hepatitis, tuberculosis and HIV; emerging infectious diseases like dengue fever, malaria and the West Nile virus; and superbugs and antibiotic-resistant bacteria stemming from improper use of antibiotics.
The report also shared several findings, one of which showed that about 62 million people in the U.S. get the flu each year and between 3,000 and 49,000 of those die. Flu is highly avoidable when vaccinations are in place but only 14 states have had at least half of their residents vaccinated for the last flu season.
States with scores of 5 and lower include: Alabama, Georgia, D.C, Indiana, New Mexico, Michigan, Oregon, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Utah, Alaska, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Maine, Montana, Mississippi, Missouri, Idaho, Wyoming, Kansas, Ohio, Kentucky, New Jersey, Arkansas and Louisiana.
