The danger of declining funds: Public Health Preparedness in NYC.

Since 2001, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) has built a strong public health preparedness foundation, made possible in large part by funding from the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Cooperative Agreement provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While this funding has allowed NYC DOHMH to make great progress in areas such as all-hazards planning, risk communication, disease surveillance, and lab capacity, the erosion of federal preparedness dollars for all-hazards preparedness has the potential to reverse these gains. Since the initiation of the PHEP grant in 2002, PHEP funding has steadily declined nationwide.