Journal of public health management and practice : JPHMP
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J Public Health Manag Pract · Jan 2021
Creating a Blueprint for the Future: Lessons Learned From Public Health Laboratories in the COVID-19 Response.
Public health laboratories have played a central role in the US response to COVID-19. Since the earliest days, myriad issues have impeded the laboratory community's ability to keep pace with the overwhelming demand for effective tests. In this article, the Association of Public Health Laboratories and a subset of its members examine the response to date and evaluate lessons learned from 4 main categories: testing surges, supplies, staffing, and regulations and policy. Within these categories, the authors offer recommendations intended both to improve the ongoing COVID-19 response and to strengthen planning for future outbreaks.
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J Public Health Manag Pract · Jan 2021
Responding to the Pandemic: Challenges With Public Health Surveillance Systems and Development of a COVID-19 National Surveillance Case Definition to Support Case-Based Morbidity Surveillance During the Early Response.
Responding to introductions of diseases and conditions of unknown etiology is a critical public health function. In late December 2019, investigation of a cluster of pneumonia cases of unknown origin in Wuhan, China, resulted in the identification of a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Multiple public health surveillance actions were rapidly implemented to detect introduction of the virus into the United States and track its spread including establishment of a national surveillance case definition and addition of the disease, coronavirus disease 2019, to the list of nationally notifiable conditions. Challenges in conducting effective case-based surveillance and the public health data supply chain and infrastructure are discussed.