Emergency Preparedness & Response

What

Our mission is to effectively respond to any emergency impacting public health through preparation, collaboration, education and rapid intervention. The Emergency Preparedness and Response Programs involve state, regional and local emergency response partners working together to enhance readiness to respond to bioterrorism, infectious disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies.The district EP&R program coordinates the response of the local health departments to any public health emergency through preparation, collaboration, education and rapid intervention. We work with local, regional and state emergency response partners to enhance readiness and response to bioterrorism, infectious disease outbreaks, and other public health emergencies. Some response measures include, monitoring and surveillance of all reportable communicable diseases and investigation of disease outbreaks within the community; dispensing of medication and immunization to limit disease transmission. Funding to support these efforts are provided through grants from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Health Resources Service Administration and the U.S Department of Homeland Security.

The Peninsula Medical Reserve Corps works within the Virginia Department of Health Hampton and Peninsula Health Districts to engage volunteers to strengthen public health, emergency response and community resiliency.

  • Peninsula MRC is community-based and functions as a way to locally organize and utilize volunteers who want to donate their time and expertise to prepare for and respond to emergencies and promote healthy living throughout the year. MRC volunteers supplement existing emergency and public health resources.
  • Peninsula MRC volunteers include medical and public health professionals such as physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, veterinarians, and epidemiologists. Many community members—interpreters, chaplains, office workers, legal advisors, and others—can fill key support positions.
  • MRC units are provided specific areas to target that strengthen the public health infrastructure of their communities by the U.S. Surgeon General. These are outlined priorities for the health of individuals, and the nation as a whole, which also serve as a guide to the MRC. The overarching goal is to improve health literacy, and in support of this, she wants us to work towards increasing disease prevention, eliminating health disparities, and improving public health preparedness.