EpidemicsEpidemiologist warns Maine is unprepared to deal with disease outbreaks
Last year, when Kaci Hickox, a nurse who returned to her home state of Maine from West Africa, she was quarantined despite showing no signs of the disease. The way she was treated led the CDC to warn that in the absence of detailed preparations, public hysteria and paranoia often accompany, and complicate response to, an outbreak. Since then, Maine officials have been debating whether or not state agencies are prepared to tackle an outbreak.
Dr. Peter Millard, a Belfast, Maine-based epidemiologist, warns that the state is unprepared to handle infectious disease outbreaks. His warning follows an announcement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that in the absence of detailed preparation, public hysteria and paranoia often accompany, and complicate response to, an outbreak.
Bangor Daily Newsreports that Millard offered his warning last year, when Kaci Hickox, a nurse who returned to the state from West Africa, was quarantined despite showing no signs of the disease.
“We’re going to have epidemics. Epidemics are always going to be with us. We’re going to have a bad epidemic eventually and if we don’t pull together and use science as a basis for our response, we’re going to be in big trouble. It’s terrible. We have no state epidemiologist. We have no assistant state epidemiologist.” said Millard at a lecture at Husson University.
He also cited the recent layoffs of staff at the Maine branch of the CDC.
“They’ve laid off a lot of people” he said. “I think we’re really poorly prepared now in Maine, which is a shame because we historically have been pretty well prepared, but I think we’re in really bad shape now. We don’t have the leadership in the governor’s office. Leadership is really important in public health. People, they don’t think it’s important, so that’s when leadership is especially important.”
John Martins, the public health information officer in Maine, has countered Millard’s claim, arguing that the state is well-prepared for a disease outbreak.
“While we look forward to the selection of a new state epidemiologist, it is imperative that all spending continues to be assessed to ensure efficient and effective use, regardless of the funding source,” Martins said. “This administration is committed to financial accountability, and we recognize there’s room for improvement. To say that Maine is ill-prepared for a disease outbreak because there is no state epidemiologist is an insult to the hard-working professionals who do this work daily.”
Millard went on to also warn that there could be far worse outbreaks than Ebola, which can be effectively quarantined.
“The respiratory ones are the scary ones. With measles, if a person with measles enters a room and nobody is immunized, everybody in the room is going to get measles,” he said. “That’s how easily it is transmitted.”
He closed with saying that the country’s handling of the SARS outbreak between 2003 and 2004 was a “big close miss,” and that good preparation would be the key toward countering future situations.
“We all worked together. People didn’t get hysterical,” he said. “They recognized the seriousness of the situation. The whole world’s health agencies worked together. We were very lucky. It was a close call. If everybody is running around doing this hysterical thing, like they did with Ebola, we’re going to be in serious trouble. We all have to work together because it’s going to be a very challenging situation.”
