Emergency Preparedness

 

The Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department is actively involved in emergency planning for our entire county. This planning prepares us for responding to a wide range of disasters such as: natural disasters, severe weather conditions, environmental emergencies, chemical disasters, disease outbreaks, mass casualties, etc. In order to successfully plan for the wide variety of emergencies that may be encountered, we must collaborate with numerous other agencies. As mentioned above, the Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department coordinates our staff training and plan development with the other health departments, Genesis hospital, local Red Cross, mental health services, Muskingum County emergency management agency, law enforcement, fire departments, school districts, and other city and county agencies and businesses. Collaboration and communication is essential for successful planning, training and response. We follow Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines and protocols throughout our planning process. These guidelines can be viewed at http://emergency.cdc.gov/planning/.

 

 Click here to view the Public Health Chapter. The Public Health Chapter is the health department's section of the County Emergency Response Plan.

 

Comments Please: Submit your comments on the Public Health Chapter to jeffm@zmchd.org.

 

Pandemics

Many of the things we do everyday help to prevent public health crises. Without restaurant inspections, immunizations or sewage and plumbing rules, many nearly diseases would be much more prevalent in our community.

Other public health strategies such as good hygiene, eating well and exercising help protect the overall health of our community and may serve as essential tools in battling large scale disease outbreaks such as pandemic influenza.

 

Pandemic Influenza

However, we live in an unpredictable world, and as we learned from the terrorist attacks in 2001 and the hurricanes in 2005, public health emergencies can arise at any time. When they do, Zanesville Muskingum County Health Department is ready to respond.