Local health departments play a crucial role in prescribing and administering COVID-19 vaccines and in supervising and administering COVID-19 vaccination programs. This new role has raised questions about the liability protections available to local health departments and their employees under the Federal PREP Act.
A county health department seeks guidance on whether the department can issue a press release indicating that individuals who attended a party on a specific date at a specific address may have been exposed to COVID-19.
The COVID-19 pandemic has raised numerous questions with regard to public health reporting requirements. This guidance addresses whether domestic violence agencies or shelters have an obligation to report cases of COVID-19 to a state or local public health department.
The COVID-19 pandemic has raised numerous questions with regard to public health reporting requirements. This guidance addresses whether domestic violence agencies or shelters have an obligation to report cases of COVID-19 to a state or local public health department.
A public health professional contacted the Network to ask if the Network could provide them with data use agreement templates for use by local public health authorities?
Naloxone is a prescription drug that reverses respiratory depression and other effects caused by opioids. In an effort to reduce opioid-related morbid and mortality, states have attempted to make naloxone more available. A public health professional from Arizona contacted the Network to ask for examples of what other jurisdictions have done to expand access to naloxone.
School food sharing tables (FSTs), where students can place uneaten food for other students to consume, help reduce food waste and food insecurity among children and adolescents. School district officials contacted the Network to determine whether FSTs would affect their federal reimbursed for meals.
Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. In 2016 alone there were close to 45,000 deaths from suicide, roughly one death every 12 minutes. In an effort to better measure the full impact of this significant public health issue, many jurisdictions require mandatory reporting of both suicides and attempted suicides. A health officer whose state was considering mandatory reporting of attempted suicides recently contacted the Network for assistance in finding examples of other states or jurisdictions where such mandatory reporting is required.
A requester contacted the Network noting that it is a misdemeanor for pharmacists to sell drug paraphernalia in his state and that there were also no needle exchange sites in the state. Limited access to drug paraphernalia may increase the likelihood that intravenous drug users will share needles, increasing the spread of diseases like HIV and hepatitis C. The requester wanted to know if other states have similar laws and what strategies for harm reduction have been used in those states.
