From Our Partners
Saturday, June 25, 2022
News on Pathogens and Preparedness
Global Biodefense
  • Featured
  • COVID-19
  • Funding
  • Directory
  • Jobs
  • Events
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
  • Featured
  • COVID-19
  • Funding
  • Directory
  • Jobs
  • Events
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
Global Biodefense
No Result
View All Result
Home Biosecurity

Spotlight on the Strategic National Stockpile

by Global Biodefense Staff
May 2, 2016
Strategic National Stockpile Storage Location

Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) storage location. Credit: CDC

Strategic National Stockpile Storage Location
Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) storage location. Credit: CDC

CDC’s Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) serves as the nation’s repository of medicines and supplies for use if there is a public health emergency, such as a terrorist attack, flu outbreak, or natural disaster, severe enough to cause local supplies to run out. The repository is designed to supplement or re-supply state and local public health agencies when needed.

In the 17 years since Congress authorized the SNS, originally named the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile, CDC has evolved its preparedness posture for response operations involving medical countermeasures. While storing and deploying medical countermeasures are critical roles and often the most visible outcome of SNS activities, they are just part of the larger medical supply chain spectrum, which includes:

  • Identifying the right products to address specific public health threats
  • Manufacturing and distributing pharmaceutical products
  • Ensuring that people who need these products receive them when and where they are needed

As part of its supply chain role, the SNS regularly works with other federal‎ agencies and private industry to ensure that the SNS products that are stored for public health emergencies are safe and ready to use.

See also: Rapid Medical Countermeasure Response to Infectious Diseases

Ebola Personal Protective Equipment

During the Ebola response, CDC monitored local supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) and encouraged hospitals, public health, and healthcare coalitions to develop sharing plans during a time when supply was not meeting demand.

Ebola Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Kits
Ebola PPE Kits ready for shipment. Credit: CDC

The SNS coordinated with commercial supply chain partners to identify gaps in PPE and on-hand PPE inventory at U.S. hospitals designated as Ebola Treatment Centers. These hospitals were prioritized for orders and the rapid delivery of key products such as gowns, coveralls, aprons, boot covers, gloves, face shields and disinfecting wipes, in the event the hospitals received an Ebola patient. The SNS also established a small stockpile of Ebola-specific PPE to meet urgent, short-term needs until commercial sources could respond to the demand.

Implementing Mosquito Control and Zika Prevention

In the wake of the Zika virus outbreak, the SNS is providing immediate vector-control services and preventive supplies for pregnant women to protect themselves from mosquito bites. The SNS has successfully initiated two short-term, overarching contracts for mosquito control efforts in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Guam.

The contracts include mosquito treatments of homes, schools, hospitals, and public places in the affected areas. There are also provisions for truck-mounted aerial spraying, if it is needed.

See also: HHS Adds New Anthrax Countermeasures to Stockpile

These contracts also provide some community outreach in the form of educational and consultative services to the communities affected by Zika.  By working with the CDC Foundation and by making direct purchases, the SNS has obtained materials for Zika Prevention Kits – including insect repellent, larvicides, mosquito netting, condoms to prevent sexual transmission of Zika, and educational materials.

The SNS is rapidly assembling these materials in reusable bags that can be given to pregnant women. To date, the SNS has sent nearly 7,000 kits to affected areas, and more are planned.

CDC’s Strategic National Stockpile – with its goal of ensuring the right materials reach the right people at the right time – has evolved to become a key player in how both the agency and the larger medical supply chain responds to public health threats in order to safeguard the health security of the U.S.

From Our Partners
Tags: BioterrorismEbolaInfluenzaPandemicStrategic National StockpileZika

Related Posts

UK Health Security Agency Widens Monkeypox Vaccine Umbrella for Outbreak Control
Medical Countermeasures

UK Health Security Agency Widens Monkeypox Vaccine Umbrella for Outbreak Control

June 21, 2022
Biodefense Industry News
Industry News

Tonix Pharmaceuticals Opens Advanced Development Center for Vaccine Programs

June 20, 2022
Dual Use Research of Concern: NIH to Host Stakeholder Engagement Meeting on Oversight Policies
Biosecurity

Dual Use Research of Concern: NIH to Host Stakeholder Engagement Meeting on Oversight Policies

June 14, 2022
BARDA and JPEO-CBRND Back Cepheid’s Multiplex Test for Influenza, SARS-CoV2 and RSV
Health Security

Resurgent COVID-19, Flu and Other Viruses are Pushing New Zealand’s Health System to the Limit

June 2, 2022
Load More

Latest News

Poliovirus Detected in London Sewage: Response Measures Emphasize Wastewater Surveillance and Vaccination Gaps

Poliovirus Detected in London Sewage: Response Measures Emphasize Wastewater Surveillance and Vaccination Gaps

June 22, 2022
Monkeypox Diagnostics: CDC Authorizes Five Commercial Lab Companies

Monkeypox Diagnostics: CDC Authorizes Five Commercial Lab Companies

June 22, 2022
UK Health Security Agency Widens Monkeypox Vaccine Umbrella for Outbreak Control

UK Health Security Agency Widens Monkeypox Vaccine Umbrella for Outbreak Control

June 21, 2022
Influenza Research

New Way to Identify Influenza A Virus Lights Up When Specific Virus Targets are Present

June 20, 2022

Subscribe

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Subscribe

© 2022 Stemar Media Group LLC

No Result
View All Result
  • Featured
  • COVID-19
  • Funding
  • Directory
  • Jobs
  • Events
  • Subscribe

© 2022 Stemar Media Group LLC