Health agencies slow to respond to disease outbreaks, study says: only 2 agencies sampled consistently met federal requirements.(Infectious Disease)

Publication: Medicine & Health

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Local public health agencies may not be answering reports of urgent infectious disease outbreaks as quickly and consistently as the federal government requires, a new study by the RAND Corp. suggests.

Federal guidelines call for health agencies to have around-the-clock ability to receive reports and a 30-minute response time. To test this preparedness, researchers surveyed 19 local public health agencies in 18 states across the county, with the goal of reaching an "action officer." Although 91 of the officers responded within the set time frame, only...

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