Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Capabilities

Public health systems play an integral role in preparing communities to respond to and recover from threats and emergencies. The public health consequences of disasters and emergencies initially affect local jurisdictions. During the initial response, the people and communities that are impacted must rely on local community resources. As a result, all state, local, tribal, and territorial emergency response stakeholders must be prepared to coordinate, cooperate, and collaborate with cross-sector partners and organizations at all governmental levels when emergencies occur, regardless of the type, scale, or severity.

While public health agencies are expected to take the lead when infectious disease outbreaks occur, jurisdictional public health agencies also must be prepared to coordinate with a diverse array of partners and stakeholders, including other government agencies to refine public health lead and support roles, responsibilities, and assignments when other technological, human-caused, or natural disasters occur.