Strategic National Stockpile

The Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) is the United States' national repository of antibiotics, vaccines, chemical antidotes, antitoxins, and other critical medical equipment and supplies. In the event of a national emergency involving bioterrorism or a natural pandemic, the SNS has the capability to supplement and re-supply local health authorities that may be overwhelmed by the crisis, with response time as little as 12 hours.^[1] The SNS is managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with support from other agencies in the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Government.^[2] The SNS represents a pillar of the United States biological defense program.

Operations

The Division of the Strategic National Stockpile (DSNS) successfully deployed 12-hour "Push Packages" to New York City and Washington, D.C. in response to 9/11 and Managed Inventory (MI) to numerous locations in response to the anthrax terrorist attacks of 2001. These so-called push packages are warehoused in a dozen, classified, non-descript facilities under 24-hour, contractor armed guard protection. Geographically situated to allow rapid delivery anywhere in the Continental U.S., material will deploy by unmarked trucks and/or airplanes within 12 hours of the receipt of the request by CDC. The U.S. Marshal provides armed security from these federal sites to local destinations.

Following landfall of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the Gulf coast of Mississippi and Louisiana in September 2005, CDC deployed SNS assets, technical assistance and response units, plus the newly developed and rapidly deployable "federal medical contingency stations" to state-approved locations near or in the disaster areas. The contingency stations, later renamed Federal Medical Stations (FMS), are caches of equipment and supplies provided by the SNS, set up in local "buildings of opportunity" and staffed by local or federal medical personnel to provide triage, low acuity care, and temporary holding of displaced patients for whom local acute care systems are damaged or destroyed.

Since the original deployment following Hurricane Katrina, FMS have been deployed to support other major disaster responses including Superstorm Sandy. The FMS program is a collaboration between CDC and the Office of Emergency Management under the HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. In 2014, responding to stakeholder feedback, a 50-bed FMS cache was developed and made available in addition to the original 250-bed FMS. ^[3]

The SNS released one-quarter of its antiviral drug inventory (Tamiflu and Relenza), personal protective equipment (PPE) and respiratory protection devices to help every US state respond to the H1N1 Influenza 2009 swine influenza outbreak in the United States.^[4]

Related legislation

Section 403 of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013 (H.R. 307; 113th Congress) reauthorized the Strategic National Stockpile for FY2014-FY2018. It required the Secretary of Health and Human Services to:

(1) submit to the appropriate congressional committees, to the extent that the disclosure of such information does not compromise national security, the annual review of the contents of the Stockpile; and

(2) review and revise the contents of the Stockpile to ensure that the potential depletion of countermeasures currently in the Stockpile is identified and appropriately addressed, including through necessary replenishment.^[5]

See also

• Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013 (H.R. 307; 113th Congress)

References

External links

• Official Site

• ASPR Public Health Preparedness