governments distribute antibiotics within their borders to pre-designated sites established primarily by local governments as “points of dispensing” (PODs). Most local governments, their partners, or other organizations expect to dispense the majority of countermeasures
governments distribute antibiotics within their borders to pre-designated sites established primarily by local governments as “points of dispensing” (PODs). Most local governments, their partners, or other organizations expect to dispense the majority of countermeasures from PODs to large groups of people. Each locally designated POD, in other words, receives its countermeasures from state authorities, which in turn have received them from the SNS (CDC, 2008).
This workshop focused on the final step in the process: medical countermeasure dispensing from PODs and via alternative mechanisms to their populations. Public health planners have used PODs as the major framework for planning countermeasures dispensing, yet PODs pose some of the greatest challenges, including their location, design, operations, capacity, workforce, and a host of other factors.
The foremost problems arise from delays in starting and completing the initial dispensing of 