Lessons from Hawaii: A Blessing in Disguise.

On January 13, 2018, Hawaii experienced an erroneous alert that falsely warned of an imminent ballistic missile strike. Rather than focus on the inconvenience caused by the false alert, we used reporting of the event to identify the missing elements that would characterize a system that could save lives by alerting and informing the public in a nuclear detonation. These include warnings that contain essential information rather than directing recipients to secondary sources; a system that issues alerts directly from federal agencies that will have the earliest warning; a robust multimodal alerting system that can deliver messages before and after the detonation; and swift activation of federal agencies immediately upon warning.

Vital Signs: Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Among Adults - United States 2011-2012.

Introduction: The 2016 National Academies of Sciences report "Hearing Health Care for Adults: Priorities for Improving Access and Affordability" included a call to action for government agencies to strengthen efforts to collect, analyze, and disseminate population-based data on hearing loss in adults.

Methods: CDC analyzed the most recent available data collected both by questionnaire and audiometric tests of adult participants aged 20-69 years in the 2011-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to determine the presence of audiometric notches indicative of noise-induced hearing loss. Prevalence of both unilateral and bilateral audiometric notches and their association with sociodemographics and self-reported exposure to loud noise were calculated.

Enhancing crisis leadership in public health emergencies.

Reviews of public health emergency responses have identified a need for crisis leadership skills in health leaders, but these skills are not routinely taught in public health curricula. To develop criteria for crisis leadership in public health, published sources were reviewed to identify attributes of successful crisis leadership in aviation, public safety, military operations, and mining. These sources were abstracted to identify crisis leadership attributes associated with those disciplines and compare those attributes with crisis leadership challenges in public health.

Clinical features, testing, and management of patients with suspected prosthetic hip-associated cobalt toxicity: a systematic review of cases.

Safety concerns regarding cobalt-containing metal alloy hip prosthetics (Co-HP) have resulted in product recalls, a medical device alert, and issuance of guidance for clinicians. Recently, cases of suspected prosthetic hip-associated cobalt toxicity (PHACT) from Co-HP have been reported. Although little is known about suspected PHACT, these patients may be referred to medical toxicologists for evaluation and management recommendations.