The Department of Health and Human Services has allotted $1.2 billion to help states, U.S. territories and metropolitan areas to improve their ability to respond to bioterrorism attacks and other public health emergencies.
The money will be used to enhance infectious disease surveillance and investigation; expand public health labs and improve their electronic communications with hospitals and government health departments; and augment the preparedness of hospitals and the delivery systems to deal with large numbers of casualties.
The department has earmarked $5.4 million of the total funding to develop the Early Warning Infectious Disease Surveillance program for U.S. states bordering Canada and Mexico.
