Question

What is the Strategic National Stockpile, what does it include, and how and when can it be accessed?

Answer 1

STRATEGIC NATIONAL STOCKPILE ( SNS) : is designed to supply potentially life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies incase of a public health emergency to save lives anywhere and at anytime within the United States or its territories.

WHAT DOES IT INCLUDE? The SNS includes

• 12-Hour Push Packs (less than 5% of the SNS inventory)

a) Broad-spectrum oral and intravenous antibiotics b) other medicines for emergency conditions c) IV fluids and fluid administration kits d) Airway equipment such as Endotracheal tubes, stylettes, oropharyngeal airways, Ambu-Bags and CO2 detectors and e) Bandages.

• Managed inventories maintained by specific vendors or manufacturers a) vaccines b) antitoxins c) ventilators and d) antidotes.

HOW AND WHEN IT CAN BE ACCESSED? Federal agencies and CDC are mainly responsible for the maintanence and delivery of SNS assets. They deliver critical medical resources to the site of a national emergency ( for instance; major earthquake, pandemic flu, a smallpox event or a terrorist attacks of chemical, biological, nuclear or explosive incidents) when local public health resources would likely be or have already been overwhelmed by the magnitude of the medical emergency. In addition to this, pre-event requests in case of explosive attacks or a sentinel event SNS resources can also be accessed to the state.

The SNS program is committed to deliver 12-Hour Push Packs anywhere in the United States or in its territories within 12 hours after a federal decision to organize and send out. This packs then immediately loaded to the nearest most rapid transportation either by cargo aicraft or by trucks. At the same time assets from the SNS are deployed, the SNS program will deploy its Technical Advisory Response Unit ( TARU) to coordinate with the state and local officials to receive the resources safely,effectively and eventually distributed on arrival at the site.