H1N1 Influenza Epidemic in Iowa

Questions to answer.

    1.Why is communication important during the public health response to an epidemic?

    2.Describe the testing process for biological emergencies and how it works, including the impact on the patient and public health.

    3.Why is influenza virus a public health risk every year?

  4. How did Iowas State Health Laboratory (SHL) leverage their prior work developing the Iowa Laboratory Response Network (I-LRN) to respond to the 2009 H1N1 influenza epidemic in Iowa?

  5. How did the services provided by laboratories support the action of the epidemiologists in this epidemic?

  6. How did the worried well strain the healthcare system during the H1N1 influenza epidemic? What can be done to mitigate this reaction and how might planners better prepare for future biological emergencies/epidemics?