Georgia is Not Prepared

We had better hope an out break of Swine Flu doesn’t happen in Georgia. We are not prepared for an outbreak of anything. Our health system lacks money and basic competence to care for our health needs at any time, much less a state of emergency. The state health laboratories could identify only 4 out of 10 food borne illinesses that occurred from 2004 to 2006. That places us at number 35th, the lowest rate in the whole U. S.of A. Our Georgia public health system is well known among health experts as problematic.

The U.S.Department of Health and Human Services gave the White House a report in January showing which states were prepared for a pandemic. Georgia came in at 16. The report showed that Georgia is not prepared to care for a large number of fatalities and has no adequate plans to keep the government offices running and protect public employees. It isn’t prepared to provide even the most basic needs.

Image by cliff1066 via Flickr

Image via Wikipedia

Legislators have reduced funds to lab services and epidemiology, which is the most critical function during an emergency. Funds for other departments have also been reduced. Three seats were left vacant in public preparedness. And this year jobs were eliminated in the epidemiology area which spots early outbreaks. Georgia already spent very little on public health. $33.71 as compared to Alabama which spends $58.46 per resident. Plans must be made but do we have the resources to carry them out.

Image via Wikipedia

When we had an outbreak of salmonella poisoning that originated in Blakely peanut processing plant. The outcome of that debacle was new management as part of the overhaul of the whole public health system. The new chief health officer is Dr. Rhonda Medows. Meadows is also commissioner of the Department of Community Health. She believes she can bring success to the health system. She has authorized the state to fill 27 vacant positions and said the state needs to spend more on public health. Meadows is figuring out how much. If necessary she says, she will ask for more money from Gov. Sonny Perdue. But he has already ordered state wide budget cuts because of less state tax money so the question is, where will the Governor find the money and is he inclined to.

Image via Wikipedia

We have a public health lab on Clairmont Road in Decatur, with small labs in Waycross and Albany. 350,000 specimens are analyzed each year. These labs are very important to early detection of infectious and food borne diseases.However Georgia falls behind most other states. In 2004 to 2006 they identified only 38% of pathogens causing food borne illness. Furthermore Georgia restricts submissions to its state labs. They do not encourage private labs to send in samples of suspect cultures. Medows said,” It’s going to take a sustained effort to turn the trend.