CDC awards money to Georgia for influenza

Georgia will receive $777,671 of $24 million that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded today to create innovative approaches to prepare for an influenza pandemic.

The CDC fund is for planning of the delivery of health care services in the event of pandemic influenza.

In all, the Atlanta-based CDC awarded 55 projects to 29 state and local public health departments.

CDC intends for the recipients to implement promising practices or to develop effective approaches that can be replicated nationally, said Dr. Richard Besser, director of the CDC’s Coordinating Center for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response.

“What is learned from these projects can benefit everyone because it could improve national, regional and local public health detection and response to a pandemic involving influenza,” Besser said.

The work could help prevent or delay the spread of an influenza pandemic, he said.

Projects around the country will focus on the exchange of information among labs to support influenza pandemic monitoring, creating state-based immunization information systems to track the distribution of influenza pandemic measures, promoting preparedness among vulnerable populations, and distributing antiviral drugs to people in an influenza pandemic event.