Relates to creating the 21st century workgroup for disease elimination and reduction

Summary

Section 1 adds a new title 6 to article 2 of the public health law, creating The 21st Century Workgroup for Disease Elimination and Reduction.

Section 2 provides the enacting clause.

Justification

This bill establishes The 215 Century Workgroup for Disease Elimination and Reduction within the Department of Health.

Vaccines are modern medicine's most successful and efficient public health tools for preventing disease and death. Because of vaccines , crippling or fatal diseases like polio are no longer a common health threat.

Currently there are vaccines available to protect children and adults against at least 17 diseases, which cause serious afflictions such as paralysis, loss of hearing, infertility and even death. Some are Diphtheria, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Haemophilus lnfluenzae Type B (Hib), Human Papillomavirus (HPV), Influenza (Flu), Measles, Meningococcal, Mumps, Pertussis, Pneumococcal, Polio, Rotavirus, Rubella, Shingles (Herpes Zoster), Tetanus, and Varicella (Chickenpox).

Specific groups of people may need special vaccinations. For example, first-year college students living in dorms should be immunized against meningitis. Travelers going abroad to foreign countries where diseases that aren't common in the United States exist, such as typhoid fever and yellow fever, may need additional vaccines before their trips. Measles, rubella, mumps and polio also may be a risk during foreign travel.

Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) which is a viral disease carried by wild birds and transmitted to horses and other mammals by mosquitoes. The virus is found in wetland habitats along the Eastern seaboard of the United States. EEE rapidly attacks the central nervous system and has a 90% mortality rate in horses.

While human cases of EEE are very rare, they are also extremely serious with a recovery rate of less than 50%. Even in those individuals who do recover, they are frequently left with brain damage. Children are more susceptible to EEE than adults. Tragically, one such child was Maggie Sue Wilcox, a four-year-old from Central, New York, succumbed to EEE in the summer of 2011.

In the wake of that misfortune, public health forums and meetings revealed the need for a modernization of the Department of Health's management of infectious diseases.

The aim of this legislation is to utilize the expertise of the New York Department of Health's Bureau of Immunization, working in conjunction with the medical experts on the immunization Advisory Council, to review existing vaccines, review the status of international research and development for vaccines likely to be candidates for the pharmaceutical marketplace and to review the status of health threats which could be addressed by the development of vaccines to thwart such threats.

In the category of diseases, illnesses and health threats, the legislation directs the Department of Health to examine their severity, frequency of occurrence, likelihood of recurrence over a period of time, existence of vaccines for those diseases for animals .

The Department is expected to consult also with the vaccine and immunization policy making national organizations, specifically the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) which is a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In addition, accessing from the "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR and other National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) publications, including the National Immunization Survey (NIS), would be a routine aspect of the Department's duties under this measure.

Funding for the initial work of the Department is expected to utilize monies from the Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant as well as to establish a liaison with the State's economic development infrastructure.

Legislative history

New bill

Fiscal implications

Unknown.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.