Public Health Resilience Checklist for High-Consequence Infectious Diseases-Informed by the Domestic Ebola Response in the United States.

CONTEXT: The experiences of communities that responded to confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease in the United States provide a rare opportunity for collective learning to improve resilience to future high-consequence infectious disease events.

DESIGN

Key informant interviews (n = 73) were conducted between February and November 2016 with individuals who participated in Ebola virus disease planning or response in Atlanta, Georgia; Dallas, Texas; New York, New York; or Omaha, Nebraska; or had direct knowledge of response activities. Participants represented health care; local, state, and federal public health; law; local and state emergency management; academia; local and national media; individuals affected by the response; and local and state governments. Two focus groups were then conducted in New York and Dallas, and study results were vetted with an expert advisory group.

RESULTS

Participants focused on a number of important areas to improve public health resilience to high-consequence infectious disease events, including governance and leadership, communication and public trust, quarantine and the law, monitoring programs, environmental decontamination, and waste management.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings provided the basis for an evidence-informed checklist outlining specific actions for public health authorities to take to strengthen public health resilience to future high-consequence infectious disease events.