# 1145
A delightfully quiet Sunday Morning, as far as Flu news is concerned.
This coming week the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs will hold hearings on Pandemic issues. It appears that these hearings will be available for viewing, live on the web at http://www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/.
A Hat Tip to SusanC on the Wiki for posting this information.
10/02/07
10:00 AM
Preparing the National Capital Region for a Pandemic
Title: Preparing the National Capital Region for a Pandemic
Date: 10/2/07
Time (EST): 10:00 AM
Place: Dirksen Senate Office Building, Rm. 342
Due to the globalization of the world economy and more frequent international travel a pandemic influenza is becoming more likely. The National Capital Region (NCR) has worked with Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services to develop an emergency response plan. Last year, the NCR released a strategic plan to address preparedness and collaboration efforts of the area jurisdiction, which include the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, 12 local jurisdictions, three branches of federal government, and over four million Americans. However, this strategic plan does not explain how the NCR should respond to any particular emergency. Since emergency response is a local responsibility, as recognized by the National Response Plan, each local jurisdiction has developed its own set of emergency operations. Thus, those operations plans prescribe how the jurisdiction in the NCR would respond to an emergency such as a pandemic outbreak. This hearing will examine the various pandemic response plans in the region and the overall preparedness of the NCR in the event of such an emergency.
10/03/07
2:30 PM
Pandemic Influenza: State and Local Efforts to Prepare
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Ad Hoc Subcommittee on State, Local, and Private Sector Preparedness and Integration
Title: Pandemic Influenza: State and Local Efforts to Prepare
Date: 10/3/07
Time (EST): 2:30 PM
Place: Dirksen Senate Office Building, Rm. 342
10/04/07
2:30 PM
Forestalling the Coming Pandemic: Infectious Disease Surveillance Overseas
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia
Title: Forestalling the Coming Pandemic: Infectious Disease Surveillance Overseas
Date: 10/4/07
Time (EST): 2:30 PM
Place: Dirksen Senate Office Building, Rm. 342
Due to the evolving nature of infectious diseases, environmental changes, and the easiness of global travel, the nature of newly emerging disease is increasingly transnational and is disproportionately zoonotic (diseases that can be transmitted to humans). Thus, we need to detect not only emerging disease, but zoonotic disease outbreaks, which depend on establishing effective new partnerships between disciplines, institutions, and nations. There are a number of executive branch agencies with programs in place to help developing countries monitor the outbreak of infectious disease and to provide the U.S. with early warning of potential public health emergencies. These programs were most recently reviewed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). This hearing will examine the results of the GAO report, assess the effectiveness of the U.S.-funded programs to assist other countries in monitoring emerging infectious disease and how those programs help the U.S. provide early warning of imminent public health threats, and work being done by the animal health community to identify emerging zoonotic disease.
