Field assessment of a model tuberculosis outbreak response plan for low-incidence areas.docVIP

BMC Public Health BioMedCentral Research article Open Access Field assessment of a model tuberculosis outbreak response plan for low-incidence areas Laura Freimanis Hance?1, Karen R Steingart*?2, Christine G Hahn3, Lisa Pascopella2 and Charles M Nolan4 Address: 1Westat, Inc, Rockville, Maryland, USA, 2Francis J. Curry National Tuberculosis Center, San Francisco, California, USA, 3Division of Health, Idaho Department of Heath and Welfare, Boise, Idaho, USA and 4Public Health – Seattle King County, Seattle Washington, USA Email: Laura Freimanis Hance - LauraFreimanis@; Karen R Steingart* - karenst@; Christine G Hahn - HahnC@; Lisa Pascopella - lpascopella@; Charles M Nolan - charlie@ * Corresponding author ?Equal contributors Published: 26 October 2007 Received: 7 June 2007 Accepted: 26 October 2007 BMC Public Health 2007, 7:307 doi:10.1186/1471-2458-7-307 This article is available from: /1471-2458/7/307 ? 2007 Freimanis Hance et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background: For a regional project in four low-incidence states, we designed a customizable tuberculosis outbreak response plan. Prior to dissemination of the plan, a tuberculosis outbreak occurred, presenting an opportunity to perform a field assessment of the plan. The purpose of the assessment was to ensure that the plan included essential elements to help public health professionals recognize and respond to outbreaks. Methods: We designed a semi-structured questionnaire and interviewed all key stakeholders involved in the response. We used common themes to assess validity of and identify gaps in the plan. A subset of participants provided structured feedback on the plan. Results: We interview