ABSTRACT
A catastrophic health event, such as a terrorist attack with a biological agent, a naturally occurring pandemic,oracalamitousmeteorologicalorgeologicalevent,couldcausetensorhundredsofthousandsofcasualtiesormore,weakentheeconomy,damagepublicmoraleandconfidence,createpanic andcivilunrest,andthreatennationalsecurity.Itisthereforecriticaltoestablishastrategicvisionthat willenablealevelofpublichealthandmedicalpreparednesssufficienttoaddressarangeofpossible disasters.Althoughpresentpublichealthandmedicalpreparednessplansincorporatetheconceptof “surging”existingmedicalandpublic-healthcapabilitiesinresponsetoaneventthatthreatensalarge numberoflives,theassumptionthatconventionalpublic-healthandmedicalsystemscanfunction effectivelyincatastrophichealtheventshasproventobeincorrectinreal-worldsituations.Ÿerefore,
it is necessary to transform the approach to healthcare in the context of a catastrophic health event in order to enable public-health and medical systems to respond effectively to a broad range of incidents.
