ABSTRACT
Analyses of expenditures from the historic tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) demonstrate the difficulties in achieving support for long-term disease prevention and health promotion initiatives. We report as a policy case study the successful development, political execution, and program deployment of new state health programs funded by Arkansas' MSA funds. Arkansas' success demonstrates the need for political leadership, the development and insertion of empirical health information into the policy deliberations, in-depth knowledge of the political process, and a broad-based coalition committed to improving health.
Subject(s)
Financing, Government , Health Promotion/legislation & jurisprudence , Tobacco Industry/economics , Arkansas/epidemiology , Budgets , Health Policy , Health Promotion/economics , Humans , Mortality/trends , Politics , State Government , Tobacco Industry/legislation & jurisprudenceABSTRACT
In June 2002, the Arkansas Department of Health anticipated a West Nile virus epidemic based on diagnoses in birds and increasing reports of human disease cases in neighboring states. Department officials activated an emergency operations center (EOC) dedicated to human West Nile virus surveillance. As a result, 43 cases (33 West Nile meningoencephalitis and 10 West Nile fever) and five (12%) deaths were confirmed from 16 counties. For all cases, the median age was 54 years (range: 2-93 years). County-specific incidence of West Nile meningoencephalitis ranged from 0.6-15.9 cases per 100,000 people. The implemented system for enhanced West Nile virus surveillance will serve as a model for future epidemic years.