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Islands' readiness for crisis doubted
By Dan Nakaso
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 15, 2010
Hawaii health officials in 2007 and 2008 were unable to rapidly identify E. coli or adequately staff laboratories to respond to an outbreak such as the H1N1 flu, according to a national survey released yesterday that dinged Hawaii's preparedness for public health disasters.
Island officials also did not activate an emergency operations center in 2007 or 2008 as part of a drill or real event - a criticism that Hawaii's acting health director disputed yesterday.
Hawaii dropped from a score of 8 last year to 7 this year - on a scale of 10 - in the report titled "Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health from Diseases, Disasters and Bioterrorism" by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Acting state Health Director Keith R. Ridley countered yesterday that Hawaii officials did activate emergency operations centers during drills in 2007 and 2008 and said he plans to dispute the finding....
Islands' readiness for crisis doubted
By Dan Nakaso
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 15, 2010
Hawaii health officials in 2007 and 2008 were unable to rapidly identify E. coli or adequately staff laboratories to respond to an outbreak such as the H1N1 flu, according to a national survey released yesterday that dinged Hawaii's preparedness for public health disasters.
Island officials also did not activate an emergency operations center in 2007 or 2008 as part of a drill or real event - a criticism that Hawaii's acting health director disputed yesterday.
Hawaii dropped from a score of 8 last year to 7 this year - on a scale of 10 - in the report titled "Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health from Diseases, Disasters and Bioterrorism" by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Acting state Health Director Keith R. Ridley countered yesterday that Hawaii officials did activate emergency operations centers during drills in 2007 and 2008 and said he plans to dispute the finding....