Implications of public understanding of avian influenza for fostering effective risk communication.

Avian influenza has three of the four properties necessary to cause a pandemic. However, are we as individuals and communities prepared for a pandemic flu in the United States? To help answer this question, 12 focus groups (N = 60) were conducted in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to determine the level of awareness of avian and pandemic flu for the county health department to develop effective communication messages. The overall findings indicate that the general Tulsa public lacks information about avian influenza or pandemics, does not believe a pandemic will occur, and believes if one does occur the government will take care of it.

Learning from Katrina: environmental health observations from the SWCPHP response team in Houston.

Hurricane Katrina provided an opportunity to observe the public health and medical care response system in practice and provided vital lessons about identifying and learning critical response measures as well as about ineffective investments of time and effort. The Southwest Center for Public Health Preparedness (SWCPHP) response team, while working among evacuees housed at Reliant Park in Houston, Texas, made a number of observations related to environmental public health. This summary reports firsthand observations which are, to a great extent, supported by the Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned report, and it provides a contextual backdrop for improvement in the areas of volunteer and citizen preparedness training and education.

Recurrent critical violations of the food code in retail food service establishments.

Records of restaurant inspections by public health departments provide sequential "snapshots" of conditions in retail food service establishments that can be used to identify risk factors and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions. Data from a random 10 percent sample of restaurant inspection files from 31 counties in Oklahoma, including 4,044 inspections conducted during 1996-2000 in "medium-risk" and "high-risk" establishments, were analyzed to determine rates of critical violations and recurrent violations for different categories of establishments. Repeat violations accounted for about half of all violations.

Are public health workers aware of what they don't know?

Objectives: Training of public health workers is an important part of preparedness. Self-assessment is often used to measure how well workers are trained and whether they are ready to respond to an emergency event. The current study assessed how well self-assessment predicts actual knowledge.

A preliminary evaluation of the effect of glove use by food handlers in fast food restaurants.

A study was conducted to determine whether the levels of selected microorganisms differed on foods handled by gloved and bare hands at fast food restaurants. Three hundred seventy-one plain flour tortillas were purchased from fast food restaurants and analyzed for Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella sp., coliform bacteria, and heterotrophic plate count bacteria.

A comparison of food safety knowledge among restaurant managers, by source of training and experience, in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma.

The annual incidence of illness related to food consumption continues to present a challenge to environmental health management. A significant fraction of cases have been attributed to consumption of food in restaurants, and as the number of meals eaten away from the home continues to rise, the potential for large-scale foodborne-disease outbreaks will continue to increase. Food handlers in retail establishments contribute to the incidence of foodborne disease; therefore, it is essential that workers and management staff have a thorough understanding of safe food practices.