"Virginia has again been recognized as a national leader for its commitment to preparing and protecting our citizens from public health emergencies," said Virginia Gov. Mark Warner. "Though preparedness cannot be evaluated in simple black-and-white terms, this report shows that Virginia is in a leadership role among the states in confronting the difficult and complicated challenges of emergency preparedness."
The TFAH grade of the federal government's performance was based on a survey of 20 leading public health experts, who evaluated 12 different aspects of health emergency preparedness. The data for the public health indicators were collected in 2005 from publicly available sources or public officials. The data for the hospital-related indicators are based on a summer of 2005 survey of more than 1,800 members of the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), whose members are experts in infection prevention and serve as advocates for infectious disease issues in hospitals throughout the nation.
"We know that preparing Virginians for public health emergencies is an ongoing endeavor," said State Health Commissioner Robert. B. Stroube, "and our efforts will continue to address potential disease outbreaks such as pandemic influenza, the specter of bioterrorism and natural disaster threats that have a potential to impact Virginia. We are already developing methods to improve in the two areas in which Virginia did not receive the highest scores in this report, and we will continue to work closely with our public- and private-sector partners in public health emergency preparedness and response to make Virginia a safer place to live and work."
