CDC shares tips to protect Americans from the Zika virus

What do you need to know about Zika? That depends on who you are, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

APHA’s Get Ready Report podcast recently spoke with Ben Beard, PhD, branch chief for the Bacterial Diseases Branch in the Division of Vector-Borne Disease at the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, to find out how to protect ourselves from the disease.

Since 2015, more than 8,500 people in U.S. states, territories and Washington, D.C., have been diagnosed with Zika, according to CDC. Most of those cases have occurred in Puerto Rico, where a public health emergency was declared last week.

Beard shared information that can benefit all Americans, especially pregnant women, travelers, outdoor workers and people living in areas where Zika might be spreading. Zika can be spread by mosquito bites, through sexual contact or from a pregnant woman to her fetus during pregnancy or delivery.

Beard recommended that Americans protect themselves from Zika by:

• using mosquito repellent and wearing clothing to cover their arms and legs,
• avoiding travel to places where Zika is being actively transmitted, and
• protecting themselves during sex by using condoms or other barrier methods.

Beard said that public health professionals have an important role to play, especially as parents and kids begin back to school plans.

“There is a really unique opportunity for public health authorities, as school seasons start, to work with schools to make sure that risk of Zika transmission can be minimized,” Beard said. “Public health authorities in school districts can proactively and collaboratively establish direct communication channels and clearly define each partner’s roles and responsibilities.”

Listen to our podcast with Beard now.

Working with minority communities to prepare for disasters

Nicole Lurie, M.D., M.S.P.H.
Photo: U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response was created shortly after Hurricane Katrina. The office, which is part of the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, leads the nation in preventing, preparing for and responding to the health effects of public health emergencies. Among its charges is to make sure underserved communities are ready for disasters.

In our new Get Ready Report podcast, we spoke with Nicole Lurie, MD, MSPH, assistant secretary for preparedness and response, about why emergency preparedness is important for racial and ethnic minority populations. A report to Congress showed that Hurricane Katrina in 2005 had its greatest impact on communities where low-income minorities lived. People who are less educated, have low incomes and live in substandard housing often suffer more in disasters, “and those populations are, more often than not, likely to be racial and ethnic minority populations,” Lurie told the Get Ready campaign. Sometimes there are language or cultural barriers in a community, which can hinder preparedness and response.

“By the same token, minority populations are often more resilient than other populations,” Lurie said. “There are often very close social connections and ties in a community and those social connections are one of the most important things to promote community resilience and personal resilience.” Preparing and responding quickly to disasters can save lives and make the U.S. a healthier nation. Disasters such as the Joplin, Missouri, tornado of 2011 or Hurricane Sandy in 2012 showed the need to make sure communities are resilient, she said. That includes constructing buildings that won’t fall down and people can exercise in, giving people access to fresh food and making sure people can walk around their neighborhoods safely.

Listen to Get Ready’s podcast with Lurie to hear more about emergency preparedness or read the transcript.

Climate change and heat waves: Stay cool with tips on dealing with high heat in our new podcast

Photo: Patrick Benko/APHA

The recent U.N. summit in New York City was a reminder that the effects of climate change are already being felt, both in the U.S. and around the world. One of those effects is extreme heat, including more intense hot days and heat waves.

 

Whether it happens mid-summer or unexpectedly on a fall day, a really hot day can be bad for your health. In our latest podcast, APHA’s Get Ready campaign spoke with Ethel Taylor, an epidemiologist with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Environmental Health, about tips on heat safety and preparedness.

 

“It’s really important for people to remember three things: to stay cool, to stay hydrated and to stay informed,” Taylor says in the podcast.

 

The effects of extreme heat vary based on region, so it’s important for people to pay attention to heat advisories for their areas. In addition, people should identify a location they can go to in the case that they don’t have access to air conditioning in their homes such as a library, shopping mall or local community center.

 

If you have a pet, Taylor says it’s important to keep them cool while keeping them safe and to “make sure that they’re in a shady location and that they have plenty of water available. Never leave your pet unattended in the car even if it’s just for a few minutes.”

 

Among the tips for coping with high heat:

• Avoid direct sunlight
• Wear light, cool clothing
• Drink water, even if you don’t feel thirsty
• Avoid alcoholic and caffeinated beverages
• Take cool showers often
• Learn about the symptoms of heat illness

For more information on how to prepare for and prevent heat related illness, listen to the podcast and download Get Ready’s heat waves fact sheet.

Do you know what to put in your emergency stockpile? Get tips in our new podcast

Daylight saving time is here, which means you probably set your clocks ahead an hour this weekend. But did you remember to check your emergency supplies as well? It can be hard to remember to update your stockpile, which is why APHA’s Get Ready campaign uses the clock change as a reminder.

 

Creating and updating your emergency stockpile is important, says Cheryl Kravitz, director of communication at the American Red Cross, National Capital Region, in our latest Get Ready Report podcast.

 

It’s important to have emergency supplies — including food, water, batteries, flashlights and a first-aid kit — ready to use in the event of an emergency. Kravitz offers tips on other items to keep in your stockpile, such as cash, a manual can opener and prescription medications.

 

When you think about making a stockpile, keep in mind that you never know when and where an emergency can happen, Kravitz says, noting she personally has three stockpiles — “one in the front closet by my front door, one in my office and one in my car.”

  

Wait, an emergency stockpile in the car? Yes, it’s important to have one there as well.

 

“If there’s a snowstorm and you get stranded on the road, it would be really awful to be stranded on the road without having a blanket, food, the necessary items to survive in your car for eight or 10 hours,” says Kravitz.

 

Here are some tips to create or update your emergency stockpile:

• Keep at least three days worth of food and water in your emergency stockpile. Download this checklist from the Get Ready campaign to build or update your stockpile.
• Make sure to include items for children or other family members with special dietary restrictions.
• Rotate your stockpile. Get tips from Get Ready’s Set Your Clocks, Check Your Stocks campaign on when and how to do so.
• Don’t forget about your pets! Make sure you have at least three days worth of food and water for them as well.
• Be sure to keep your emergency stockpile in an accessible, cool, dark place.

The key to staying safe during any type of emergency is planning and preparation, says Kravitz.
 
“The American Red Cross really encourages everyone with the phrase of, ‘get a kit, make a plan and be informed,’” she says.
 
Listen to the podcast now or read the transcript. Check out our Get Ready: Set Your Clocks, Check Your Stocks page for information to download and share, including fact sheets, e-cards and games for kids.

Having a family communication plan is key, especially during an emergency

Disasters can strike when you least expect them, and you may not be with your family when they happen. Having a family communication plan can help you get in contact with your loved ones during an emergency.

 

In our latest podcast, APHA’s Get Ready team speaks with Jeffrey Mitchell, clinical professor of emergency health services at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and co-founder of the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, about the importance of including communications in family emergency preparedness planning.

 

“Make sure that you don’t make the plan so complex that people are not able to follow it,” Mitchell says. “It needs to be simple; it needs to be done with some degree of speed, and it has to be very effective so it works for the family system.”

 

Social media tools and text messaging can be fast, effective ways to communicate during a disaster, and Mitchell encourages incorporating them into your plan. Facebook and Twitter can be especially useful tools if you can’t get to a phone or if phone lines are down or overloaded, he noted. For family members who don’t use social media, it’s important to have other communication plans.

 

“If you have elderly people in the family who are not on the Internet, and they rely heavily on phone communication, then that needs to be built into the process as well,” he adds.

Here are some more things to consider when developing your family’s communication plan, courtesy of the Federal Emergency Management Agency:

• Make a contact card for each family member including children. Put it in your everyday wallet, purse, briefcase or backpack.
• Identify an out-of-town relative or family friend who can be another contact for your family, especially in the event of an evacuation. Make sure every member of your family knows the emergency contact’s information.
• Make sure every family member has a cellphone, money or a prepaid phone card to use for calls.
• If you have a cellphone, program your “in case of emergency” contact into your phone.
• Teach family members how to use text messaging, which can work around network problems that prevent a phone call from going through.
• Subscribe to alert services. Many communities have systems that send emails or text messages in the event of an emergency.

For more information, listen to the podcast or read the transcript. For more family preparedness tips, visit the Get Ready Parents page on our website.

Now’s the time to update your vaccinations

Fall is here, and that means the school year is well underway. One of the most important ways to prepare your kids for school is to keep up with their immunizations.

In observance of National Immunization Awareness Month in August, the Get Ready Report podcast team spoke with Bruce Gellin, director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Vaccine Program Office, about the important role immunization plays in protectingfamiliesfrom disease.

Keep these facts about immunization from Gellin in mind:

• The recommended vaccines for children prevent 14 serious infections and their complications.
• The flu shot changes every year, and is designed to protect against the virus strains that are most likely to cause flu that season. The flu vaccine is available before flu comes to your community.In fact, some pharmacies are offering the vaccine already.
• Vaccine recommendations and schedules depend on your age.

“Vaccines aren’t only for kids,” Gellin told APHA’s Get Ready campaign. “In fact, now they are now used across the lifespan - not just for kids, but adults, pregnant women, adolescents.”

Remember: the sooner you get vaccinated, the sooner you are protected from infectious diseases. Listen to our new podcast or read the transcript.

For more information on vaccinations, check out our fact sheet series, with information on vaccines for kids, teens and adults.

Preparing for hurricane season: New podcast features tips from National Hurricane Center

The 2013 hurricane season is now officially underway. To help Americans be prepared, the Get Ready Report Podcast team spoke with staff at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Hurricane Center.

According to NOAA, there’s a 70 percent likelihood of 13 to 20 named storms this season, well above the seasonal average of 12. The agency says as many as 11 of those storms could become hurricanes.

Hurricanes can cause three major hazards: strong winds, storm surges and inland flooding, according to James Franklin, branch chief at the National Hurricane Center.

“People need to know what those hazards can do, and then know which of those hazards you’re particularly vulnerable to, depending on where you live,” Franklin says in the new podcast.

Anyone who lives along the East Coast from Texas to Maine is at potential risk. But Franklin notes that hurricanes are not just coastal threats, citing 2012’s Hurricane Sandy as an example of when wind gusts were produced as far as Wisconsin.

Here are some tips to use this hurricane season:

• Become familiar with information and alerts from both the National Hurricane Center and your local weather center. 
• Understand the difference between a hurricane watch and a hurricane warning. During a watch, prepare your home, review your plan for evacuation and listen closely for instructions from local officials. During a warning, finish preparations and immediately leave the threatened area if directed by officials.
• Develop a plan that includes an evacuation strategy and an emergency supply kit, including enough water and nonperishable food to last at least three days, a first-aid kit, a flashlight, a battery-operated radio, extra batteries and medical supplies. 

 For more tips on how to prepare for hurricanes, check out our Get Ready hurricane fact sheet.

Mental health and emergencies: Being prepared and coping afterward

Public health disasters don’t just affect the environment — they impact mental and emotional health, too. In observance of National Mental Health Awareness Month, the Get Ready Report podcast team spoke with Robert Motta, director of the Child and Family Trauma Institute at Hofstra University about mental health preparedness.

Motta and his students were involved in mental health response following Hurricane Sandy, which damaged communities in the Northeast U.S. in October, killed more than 100 people and left thousands of people homeless. Such emergencies can “have a dramatic impact on mental and emotional health,” Motta says.

After traumatic events, people may experience feelings of anger, guilt, grief and helplessness as well as dramatic mood swings. Such feelings can continue long after the disaster is over, developing into post traumatic stress disorder that can last for months or years.

And it’s not just adults that are affected. To help children cope with emergencies, Motta says parents should stay calm and optimistic and provide assurance that unpredictable things can happen.
“Parents can prepare themselves by realizing that children can be more influenced by their reactions than the actual event,” Motta told the Get Ready campaign.

Knowing you are prepared before an emergency happens can lessen stress during an emergency, says Motta. Instead of struggling to find out where to get help during an emergency, communities and residents can be ready ahead of time by organizing support groups and determining where emergency services such as shelters, food banks and call centers are available.

For more tips on mental health preparedness, listen to the podcast with Motta and read the transcript. For more information, download the Get Ready campaign’s mental health and disaster fact sheet.

New podcast: Flu season update from CDC

Dr. Jhung, MD, MPH, MS,
Medical Officer for the CDC

Have you noticed that a lot of people are talking about the flu right now? It’s on the news, and as more people come down with the flu this year, it’s on everyone’s minds, too.

More than 40 U.S. states are reporting widespread flu activity in what has turned out to be an early start to the 2012-2013 flu season. The Get Ready campaign spoke with Michael Jhung, a medical officer for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to get the scoop on this year’s flu season in the latest episode of our Get Ready Report podcast.

Jhung said that this year’s flu season is off to “quite an early start,” and that this year could turn out to be worse than last year’s flu season.

Why worry about the flu? Jhung reported that the flu kills anywhere between 3,000 and 49,000 people in the U.S. each year, and makes thousands more severely ill.

“Influenza puts several hundred thousand people into the hospital every year in the United States,” he said. “Even if you don’t end up in the hospital with influenza, it’s really a miserable experience to be pretty much incapacitated for the few days to week of influenza symptoms.”

If you’ve been lucky enough to avoid the flu so far this year, you can increase your chances of staying healthy by getting a flu shot. That’s right — it’s not too late!

“There is a lot of flu activity out there right now, and there is every reason to go out and get vaccinated if you haven’t been vaccinated already,” Jhung said.

If you are looking for the flu shot, check flushot.healthmap.org to find a location near you.

Jhung also explains during the podcast why some flu seasons are worse than others, and talked about how the CDC monitors flu every year. Plus, he has other useful tips for keeping yourself healthy after you’ve gotten your flu shot.

Check out the podcast for more helpful information about the flu. You can listen to the episode or read the full transcript. And don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast for free via iTunes!

Are you tech ready? Check out our new podcast on digital disaster preparedness!

The Get Ready campaign recently spoke with Amy Donahue, a reference librarian at the Medical College of Wisconsin, about preparing for a disaster digitally.

In our new podcast episode, Donahue gives tips for using technology to help us before, during and after an emergency. She has suggestions for how to make sure technology will work for us when we need it most — things like having extra batteries and having a plan for charging your phone when the power goes out. 

Donahue also explains how librarians can help when disaster strikes.

“We can help people identify good resources for disaster information. We can help them find new sources if they don’t know where to start. And then we can also help work with community partners,” to help people share information before, during and after an emergency, she says.

In addition to preparing your tech gear, Donahue reminds us that “nothing beats having the kit, having the plan, making sure all your technology will help you and not hinder you before an emergency ever strikes.”

You can listen to the newest Get Ready podcast and read the transcript here, or subscribe to our podcasts on iTunes!

Is there a specific topic you think we should cover in our next podcast? Let us know in the comments!

Tips for creating a useful first-aid kit

Do you have a first-aid kit at home? If so, when’s the last time you checked on the contents and made sure you have what you need? If you’re not sure, you’ll want to listen to the latest episode of our Get Ready Report podcast series and find out what it takes to have a useful kit.

The episode features advice from Richard Bradley, MD, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, on what should go in to a good first-aid kit — and why those items should be there. Bradley is a member of the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council and chair of their CPR Subcouncil. In other words, he’s an expert in getting ready for emergencies!

First, Bradley says everyone should have a first-aid kit in their home — and in their car, too. First-aid kits are important both for household emergencies that require quick response and treatment and in case of a disaster.

“The emergency medical services that we expect to be there in just a few minutes during normal conditions may take a lot longer or may not be able to come at all if there’s an injury after a disaster,” Bradley says.

Bradley says there are several items that should be in any first-aid kit: gloves and other personal protective equipment, an assortment of bandages and common medication to treat fever and pain, such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen. Bradley also talks about items that don’t need to be in your first-aid kit, such as first-aid creams.

Whether you buy a pre-made first-aid kit or put together your own, it’s clear that having a kit is an important part of getting ready.

“I can tell you anyone who I see who comes into my emergency department never planned when they woke up that morning that they were going to have an emergency,” Bradley says. “So you will never know when the day will come when something will happen when you’ll need to respond.”

For more tips, listen to the podcast online now or check out the transcript. For handy reference, print and save this Healthy You tipsheet from The Nation’s Health, APHA’s newspaper.

Don’t miss an episode of Get Ready Report. Subscribe to our podcast series via iTunes.

Flu Fridays: Learn about our new flu tracking tool, Flu Near You

Welcome back to Flu Fridays! Did you know that you can help track the flu this year, right from your computer? The Get Ready Report podcast team recently sat down with Michelle Holshue, RN, APHA’s Flu Near You fellow, to learn more about an online tracking tool called Flu Near You.

Launched in October, Flu Near You asks people to sign up to report their symptoms. Users get a weekly email asking, “How are you feeling?” They fill out a short survey about their recent symptoms — or lack of them — and then they can see a map of other reported flu symptoms in their area. The information on the map is anonymous, and the map is interactive, too.

“You can push ‘play’ on the map and watch the flu season unfold week by week, like a movie,” Holshue said.

Holshue believes that there are many reasons why the public should be interested monitoring the flu.

“A lot of people think that the flu is ‘no big deal,’ but in the U.S., thousands of people die every year from influenza and related complications,” she said during the podcast.

Holshue said she hopes that by using Flu Near You, everyday people can arm themselves with knowledge about flu activity in their area.

Image courtesy Flu Near You.

“By looking at the map every week, they’ll be able to know if flu cases are picking up in their area, and then hopefully they can take precautions to prevent themselves from getting sick, like getting the flu shot or practicing better hygiene,” she said.

Are you ready to learn more about Flu Near You? Listen to episode 23 (Part A) of our Get Ready Report online. iTunes users can download all of our Get Ready Report podcasts for free from the iTunes Store. You can also read the full transcript of the interview with Holshue.

If you’re an APHA member, you’ll also want to listen to Part B of episode 23, where we explain the special Flu Near You Challenge that we have developed just for members.

Find out more about Flu Near You or sign up to take part at https://flunearyou.org/.

Workplace preparedness: What businesses can do to prepare for disasters

Did you know that 65 percent of businesses in the United States don’t have a plan for disaster preparedness? That’s what we learned last month when we sat down with Bob Boyd to record the latest episode of our Get Ready Report podcast.

Boyd is president and CEO of Agility Recovery, a Charlotte, N.C., company that develops disaster preparedness plans for the workplace. He says that typically only the largest companies he’s worked with have developed plans to protect their employees, customers and their financial future in case of emergencies — but he believes that all businesses need to plan for disasters. Boyd says that a workplace preparedness plan will help companies “overcome any kind of interruption, whether that’s a hurricane or a burst pipe,” as he explains in our interview.

Even owners and employees of smaller businesses can take steps to be prepared for emergencies — and, Boyd says, these steps won’t cost a lot of money or time. In fact, he provided Get Ready Report listeners with five quick steps “that any business can take” to be prepared.

And the best part is, these steps are free — and so is our podcast! So, what are you waiting for? Listen to our Get Ready Report episode right now!

You can also read the full transcript of our interview with Boyd or the shortened Q&A version.

And don’t forget to check out all of our great podcasts!