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State Health Officials to Congress: Act on Zika Funding Now ARLINGTON, VA—While Congress debates the future of federal funding for Zika preparedness and response, the Zika virus continues to spread. Rising case numbers and new information about long-term consequences of the infection highlight the urgency of mounting a major response. For the sake of our nation’s health, our representatives in Washington must come together and approve a bill to fund needed Zika preparedness response efforts and keep our nation’s public health infrastructure strong and secure. This national and state public health emergency requires a coordinated and properly resourced effort at the federal, state, and local levels. The nation’s state and territorial health officials stand ready to be part of that effort.   Zika virus is likely to continue to spread and is here to stay. While there is still much to learn about the virus and its health impacts, what we know already justifies an aggressive response. The virus has a potentially devastating impact on fetal development, and we are learning more about the risk of long-term health impacts for adults who become infected. We also know that federal agencies and state and territorial health departments are inadequately funded to respond to this crisis. There is an urgent need for additional resources to shore up mosquito control efforts, educate the public, increase public laboratory capacity, provide help to families with infants exposed to Zika, and follow up with pregnant women who may have been exposed to Zika at home or abroad. Due to the urgency of this threat, state and federal health agencies have been forced to divert resources from other critical public health programs to pay for Zika response. We agree that this robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul approach, described by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony S. Fauci in their August 31 Washington Post editorial, is the wrong way to fight the Zika epidemic. We need a focused, coordinated, and adequately funded response to Zika while continuing to support the other essential work health agencies do to protect the public. For this to happen, Congress must act now. “We urge Congress to recognize that this is a serious, nonpartisan threat and to come together to pass emergency funding so that the public health system can effectively respond to Zika while simultaneously preparing for myriad other health threats like Ebola, natural disasters, and the upcoming influenza season,” said ASTHO President and Minnesota Commissioner of Health Edward P. Ehlinger, MD, MSPH. In the absence of dedicated funding for Zika response, public health officials must fund Zika efforts by redirecting funds away from other important functions such as the all-hazards preparedness efforts of state and territorial health agencies that enable them to rapidly respond to public health emergencies of all kinds. This approach leaves us in a precarious position as Zika will not be the only public health emergency that state and territorial health agencies face. States are tasked with minimizing and mitigating the health effects of hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorist attacks, chemical spills, and all kinds of other manmade and natural emergencies. Preparation and response to Zika is a massive undertaking, and Congressional inaction is handcuffing states, limiting their ability to prepare and respond to emergency situations. It has been months since public health officials first began calling for Zika funding, and Congressional delay lays bare the inadequacy of America’s piecemeal approach to funding public health emergency responses. In addition to properly funding a Zika response, we also need to create a permanent, FEMA-style Public Health Emergency Fund to facilitate an immediate response to public health emergencies. Public health crises arise independent of the Congressional calendar, and such a fund would allow for a rapid response rather than redirecting public health funding from other critical priorities. Federal and state health agencies are obligated to protect health and wellness nationwide. We believe Congress is similarly obligated to support the critical health protection efforts in partnership with the states. As Drs. Frieden and Fauci stated, we should be working tirelessly to respond to and slow the spread of Zika infections and support those families whose newborns have been affected by this virus. We are ready to do that, but we need support from Congress now to make it happen. ASTHO Press Release Boilerplate website yes

ASTHO Honors 2015 Public Health Heroes SALT LAKE CITY—The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2015 ASTHO public health heroes awards. Anne Schuchat, director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and assistant surgeon general, was awarded the National Excellence in Public Health Award. Schuchat has made vital contributions to preventing infectious diseases in children. She led the development of CDC′s guidelines on perinatal group B streptococcal disease, which resulted in an 80 percent reduction in newborn infections and a 75 percent narrowing of racial disparities among sufferers. She previously worked in West Africa on meningitis vaccine studies, South Africa on surveillance and prevention projects, and China on SARS emergency response. Sylvia Pirani, director of the Office of Public Health Practice within the New York State Department of Health, received the State Excellence in Public Health Award. Pirani has been a driving force behind the New York State Prevention Agenda 2013-2017, the five-year state health improvement plan to make New York the healthiest state in the nation, and was instrumental to assembling a large network of partners across the state to improve understanding of the social determinants of health and promote the Health in All Policies approach. José T. Montero, vice president of population health and health systems integration at Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene, is the 2015 McCormack Award winner. Established in 1950 to honor Arthur T. McCormack, a Kentucky state health official, the McCormack Award is presented each year to a current or former public health official who has served for at least 10 years, been a chief state health official for at least five years, demonstrated excellence, and made a significant contribution to the knowledge and practice of the field. From 2008 to 2015, Montero was the public health director at the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health Services, and served as ASTHO president from 2012-2013. He is a leader in developing population health at the national level and integrating public health and healthcare to improve population health outcomes. The Noble J. Swearingen Award was awarded to Guthrie S. Birkhead, deputy director of New York State Department of Health. Since 1979, the Swearingen Award, named for a former ASTHO executive director, has been bestowed on one individual in public health administration who has five or more years of experience in a state health agency, and five or more years in service to the ASTHO Senior Deputies Committee or in some other capacity. Birkhead is a communicable disease epidemiology specialist whose work in New York includes directing the Center for Community Health, AIDS Institute, Center for Environmental Health, Wadsworth Center Laboratory, Office of Public Health Practice, Office of Health Emergency Preparedness, and Office of Public Health Informatics and Project Management. The Presidential Meritorious Service Award is given by the ASTHO president to honor a health leader who has made outstanding contributions to ASTHO and state public health. This year, ASTHO President Jewel Mullen recognized Joycelyn Elders, the sixteenth Surgeon General of the United States. Elders was the first African American and second woman to head the U.S. Public Health Service. Elders grew up in a rural, segregated, poverty-stricken pocket of Arkansas before becoming the first person in Arkansas to be board-certified in pediatric endocrinology. She is a professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and remains active in public health education. ASTHO’s Alumni Award is presented to a former chief state health official who has demonstrated his or her continued commitment to public health. This year’s Alumni Award winner is Bob Harmon, a physician executive at Cerner Corporation and director of the Missouri Department of Health from 1986 to 1990. Harmon has authored more than 70 publications dealing with health information technology, quality improvement, managed care, primary care, public health administration, and health policy. ASTHO in honored to recognize these public health leaders for their dedication and service to improving health and wellness. ASTHO Press Release Boilerplate website yes

The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials Challenges Members to Promote Health Equity and Health in All Policies ARLINGTON, VA—The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and ASTHO President and Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Edward Ehlinger have issued the 2016 ASTHO President’s Challenge: Advancing Health Equity and Optimal Health for All. The challenge is based on the Triple Aim of Health Equity, a framework weaving together three core elements of public health practice and policy which recognize that health status is influenced by a host of factors—most of them outside the healthcare system. The 2016 challenge calls upon states and territories to: (1) expand their understanding of what creates health, (2) implement a Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach with health equity as the goal, and (3) strengthen community capacity to create their own healthy future. The challenge encourages states and territories to broaden their approaches to advancing health equity and improving the health of all their residents by adopting the foundational public health practices embodied in the Triple Aim of Health Equity. The challenge will be to use these practices to address a policy, program, or activity issue within their jurisdictions in the next year. “The dominant narrative in America is that health is the responsibility of individuals until they get sick, and then health becomes the responsibility of the healthcare system,” Ehlinger says. “This outdated narrative allows little room for community or social influences, and its deficiency is clear when you look at the health disparities in this country and our overall health outcomes relative to other developed nations.” The challenge specifically targets health inequities that plague a number of groups that have been disadvantaged in America. As the nation becomes more diverse, the impact of unaddressed inequities will become more evident and alarming. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 50.4 percent of children 1 year of age and younger belong to a minority group as of July 2011. By 2044, a majority of the entire U.S. population will belong to a minority group. Yet research shows that minority populations are disproportionately affected by higher rates of poverty, decreased graduation rates, and food and housing insecurity—factors that decrease their opportunities to be healthy. The new challenge will use three core elements of public health practice that make up the Triple Aim of Health Equity approach to elevate the profile of advancing health equity and creating optimal health for all. ASTHO will support state and territorial health officials and partners who accept the challenge by providing technical assistance and support, sharing best practices and success stories, and facilitating information exchange and opportunities for collaboration around health equity and HiAP approaches. Ehlinger has recently presented on the challenge to CDC, the Institute of Medicine Committee on Community Based Solutions to Promote Health Equity in the United States, and multiple professional groups around the country. “The 2016 ASTHO President’s Challenge recognizes that good health does not begin with treating illness. Our health status arises from our everyday environments, activities, and the people around us,” says Sharon Moffatt, ASTHO interim executive director. “We are proud to work with Dr. Ehlinger to promote health equity and optimal health for all. When we build healthier communities, we all benefit.” In November, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy joined Ehlinger during the Health Equity in All Policies panel at the American Public Health Association’s 2015 Annual Meeting, where Murthy voiced his support for the new President’s Challenge. “Reducing disparities in health will give everyone a chance to live a healthy life and improve the quality of life for all Americans,” says Murthy. To learn more about the 2016 ASTHO President’s Challenge, visit: www.astho.org/Health-Equity/2016-Challenge. ASTHO Press Release Boilerplate website yes

COVID-19 revealed the dire straits of public health; now, with renewed funding, public health leaders discuss how to use COVID funding to build and maintain sustainable infrastructure.

In this podcast episode, experts offer perspectives on the value of cultivating partnerships between state public health agencies and state units on aging. In addition, officials from Georgia describe their collaboration to improve the health of older adults in the state.

Anne Zink (Chief Medical Officer, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services) and Larry Lewis (licensed psychologist and executive coach) speak on the importance of celebrating “small wins”—tangible stories of progress that can sustain the public health workforce in an otherwise trying time.

On this episode: public health on alert as the Ebola outbreak expands in Uganda; and David Lakey, MD (alumni-TX) tells us about lessons from 2014 when the Ebola virus made its way to Dallas, Texas.