The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has finalized the Public Health Emergency Response Guide for State, Local, and Tribal Public Health Directors. The guide is available at www.bt.cdc.gov.

State, local, and tribal public health departments play an important role in emergency preparedness and response. Public health professionals within these departments should have immediate access to guidance and information that will assist them in rapidly establishing priorities and undertaking necessary actions during the response to an emergency or disaster. The Environmental Public Health Readiness Branch in the Division of Emergency and Environmental Health Services at the CDC's National Center for Environmental Health developed the response guide to address this need.

The guide is an all-hazards reference tool for health professionals who are responsible for initiating the public health response during the first 24 hours of an emergency or disaster. It also contains guidance that may be unique to specific types of incidents, such as floods, earthquakes, and acts of terrorism.

A pocket-sized field version of the guide will be available to state, local, and tribal public health departments in January 2005. For more information, contact Martin Kalis at (770) 488-4568 or pherg@cdc.gov, or Gary Rhyne at (770) 488-7104 or pherg@cdc.gov.