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LCHD/CHS Mass Prophylaxis Exercise - Mays
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At the previous Board of Health meeting in June, we outlined for the Board advances made in the community and health department’s ability to deliver antibiotics to all county residents within 48 hours of a public health emergency. These advances were confirmed by both a high score ( 95 out of 100) received by the department on its annual mass prophylaxis review, conducted by the Illinois Department of Public Health on behalf of CDC, and last year’s field exercise results.
In order to assure continuing improvement, LCHD/CHC conducted another mass prophylaxis exercise on July 24, 2008 with the cooperation of Grant and Ela Townships and the municipalities of Fox Lake and Lake Zurich.
This exercise involved the delivery, by Lake County’s Department of Transportation and Sheriff’s Department, of a designated quantity of medication from the county’s Central Reception Site to the participating townships. The townships then subdivided their delivery for each of the 3 participating polling place sites: one at the Fox Lake-Volunteer Fire Station and two at Peace Lutheran Church and St Peter’s Church in Lake Zurich. Both municipalities picked up the antibiotics and delivered them to their corresponding polling places. Staff at all polling place sites were composed of: 2 LCHD/CHC (Site Mgrs); 2 Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) Nurses; 4 County Clerk Election Judges; 4 Republican Committeemen and 4 village workers. Patient volunteers were drawn from the community including MRC and other community partners.
The exercise utilized a non-medical mass prophylaxis model which assumes the distribution of antibiotics to 1 representative per household, by non-medical staff, with a minimal health screening (based on a pre-set screening algorithm). Due to a shortage of volunteers, throughput was assessed only at St Peter’s Church and estimated at 174 households per hour. This represents a 14 % increase compared to last year. Giv...
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