Did You Know?: Five States Tie for Top Score in Infectious Disease Outbreak Readiness; 25 Score Below Average

The non-profit, non-government group Trust for America’s Health recently released the report “Outbreaks: Protecting Americans from Infectious Diseases,” which evaluated each state’s ability to manage a severe infectious disease outbreak in light of the recent Ebola crisis. The group identified 10 key indicators of preparedness, worth one point each, and assigned each state a grade on a 10-point scale.

Maryland, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia tied for the highest score with an 8, while half of U.S. states and the District of Columbia scored 5 or lower. The key indicators were related to a state’s prevention, detection, diagnosis and response capabilities in the event of an outbreak. The report’s website includes an interactive map that provides a breakdown of each state’s performance as well as the text of the full report.