The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently awarded a total of $6,125,363 to the Hawaii Department of Public Health (DOH) to support its Disease Outbreak Control Division’s Public Health Preparedness Branch to help address a variety of public health threats and emergencies.
Funding will specifically go towards assisting the Hawaii DOH to recruit and train emergency operations personnel, enhance connections with the Native Hawaiian health care system, conduct community assessments, improve risk communications strategies, and expand partnerships for medical countermeasure initiatives.
“Our experience fighting Zika, dengue, and other diseases has taught us how important it is for states and local governments to have the resources they need to confront potential public health threats,” U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) said. “I will continue to push to ensure that Hawaii receives the funding it needs to prepare for and respond to future public health emergencies.”
Recently, Hirono sent a public letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Chairman U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) pushing for the continued funding of public health programs that protect the nation’s health systems from a number of threats.
“Today, hospitals, public health systems and their respective preparedness programs face many challenges,” the letter said. “State and local planners will likely need to make difficult choices about how to prioritize and ensure that federal dollars are directed to priority areas within their jurisdictions.”
The letter continued, asking for the maintenance of federal support for the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Program and the Hospital Preparedness Program at the current funding level “to ensure that hospitals and health care coalitions have necessary resources to respond to public health and other emergencies and disasters.”