ABSTRACT
Upon declaration of poliovirus (PV) type 2 eradication in 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) published PV containment requirements in the Global Action Plan III (GAPIII) for mitigating the risk of a facility-associated release post eradication. In 2018, the 71st World Health Assembly resolution urged member states retaining PV to appoint a National Authority for Containment (NAC), reduce the number of PV facilities, and submit applications for containment certification. The United States (US) NAC was established in 2018 for containment oversight, and two paths to WHO GAPIII containment certification were developed. Facilities retaining PV were identified through national poliovirus containment surveys. The US NAC conducted 27 site visits at 18 facilities (20 laboratories: A/BSL-2 (65%), A/BSL-3 (20%), and storage-only (15%)) to verify the implementation of US NAC's preliminary containment measures. The NAC identified areas for improvement in seven categories: primary containment, decontamination, hand hygiene, security, emergency response, training, and immunization practices. Sixteen facility applications were endorsed to pursue poliovirus-essential facility (PEF) certification, whereas four facilities opted to withdraw during the containment certification process. The US made noteworthy progress in PV containment to enhance biosafety and biosecurity practices at US PV facilities to safeguard the polio eradication effort.
ABSTRACT
CDC continually evaluates its Emergency Management Program (EMP) activities, including Incident Management System (IMS) activations, use of EMP functions (referred to as EMP utilizations), and exercises, to ensure that the agency is ready to respond to infectious disease outbreaks, disasters (human-made or natural), and security events. Such evaluation not only documents baseline preparedness and response activities during a selected analytical period, but also highlights significant EMP actions that can guide and inform future emergency operations. To characterize EMP activities that occurred during January 1, 2013-December 31, 2018, CDC conducted a retrospective analysis of operational activity logs. The results showed 253 domestic (U.S. states and territories) and international EMP activities, including 12 IMS activations, 147 EMP utilizations, and 94 exercises. Infectious diseases were the most common threat among both IMS activations (58%) and EMP utilizations (52%). CDC responded to the 2014 Ebola epidemic and the 2016 Zika outbreak; each response lasted approximately 2 years and required extended collaboration with domestic and international partners. Understanding the trends in EMP activities, including knowing the most common threats, aids CDC in allocating resources and focusing preparedness efforts. In 2013, CDC became the first federal agency to receive full agency-wide accreditation by the Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) in recognition of CDC's commitment to preparedness and its ability to respond to domestic and global public health threats. CDC received EMAP reaccreditation in December 2018 (1,2).
