The City of Philadelphia is preparing to host the World Meeting of Families including a planned Papal Visit from September 22-27, 2015. While the City of Philadelphia has received no information regarding any threats specific to these events, healthcare facilities should be prepared for both naturally occurring events that might result in increased illness, as well as the possibility of terrorism resulting in civilian casualties. The Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) recommends that healthcare facilities review their emergency response and disaster preparedness plans before the upcoming World Meeting of Families events with the possibly heightened potential for terrorism and disease transmission. Specific recommendations include:

• Evaluate facilities and personnel to ensure the safety and security of both.
• Ensure that appropriate staff understand their roles in an emergency and communications protocols.
• Update clinical providers on biological, chemical, and radiological agents.
• Information on these threats is attached and available online at https://hip.phila.gov.
• Additional resources on these threats may be found at www.bt.cdc.gov and www.atsdr.cdc.gov.
• Review procedures that address medical treatment of mass casualties, including decontamination protocols, the use of personal protective equipment and triage protocols.
• Review procedures that address medical treatment of blast and bombing injuries.
• Information can be found at http://emergency.cdc.gov/masscasualties/blastinjuryfacts.asp.
• Remind clinicians to always take a medical history, including a travel history.
• Prepare to treat individuals suffering from extreme weather related illnesses.

PDPH reviews data daily from multiple sources to facilitate the recognition of disease outbreaks. However, PDPH relies on clinicians to report by telephone conditions that require immediate notification, including any outbreak or unusual presentation or cluster of disease. Indicators of naturally occurring outbreaks or possible biological terrorism are:

• An unusual temporal or geographic clustering of illness (e.g., persons who attended the same public event or gathering).
• Increase in serious lower respiratory illness with negative tests for common bacteria and viruses.
• Patients presenting with clinical signs and symptoms that suggest an infectious disease outbreak (e.g., >2 persons presenting with an unexplained febrile illness associated with sepsis, pneumonia, respiratory failure, or rash or a botulism-like syndrome with flaccid muscle paralysis, especially if occurring in otherwise healthy persons).
• An unusual age distribution for common diseases (e.g., an increase in chickenpox-like illness in adult patients).
• Single cases of disease due to uncommon, non-indigenous agents (e.g., anthrax, plague, tularemia) in patients with no history suggesting an explanation for illness.
• Large number of cases of acute flaccid paralysis with prominent bulbar palsies, suggestive of a release of botulinum toxin.

Call PDPH to report conditions requiring immediate notification, or to obtain public health consultation. PDPH will also facilitate diagnostic testing requiring public health laboratory services. During normal business hours, call 215-685-6748; after business hours, contact the PDPH Division of Disease Control on-call personnel at 215-686-4514 through Philadelphia City Hall.

Official Memo and Summary of Preparedness

Additional Resource