Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams (VMAT)
The American Veterinary Medical Association sponsored Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams (VMAT) have completed their service in New York City. A total of 55 VMAT team members served their local veterinary colleagues in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has deactivated all of the Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams. FEMA provides leadership in all aspects of the rescue mission and provides liaison officers. For more information about FEMA visit www.fema.gov.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
CDC has an agreement with local New York City hospitals to continue surveillance for up to six months after the CDC contingent leaves the city. For more information visit www.cdc.gov.
Recovered casualties as reported by the State of New York as of October 31, 2001:
>>Remains recovered-8647
>>Remains identified-368
Clinical data as of November 1, 2001:
>>Human patients treated by US PHS-8904
>>Mental health contacts by US PHS-5881
>>Animal patients treated by VMAT-936
Complete U.S. Public Health Service daily situation reports are available from:
http://www.oep-ndms.dhhs.gov/activations/activations.html
To learn more about the VMAT visit:
http://www.avma.org/vmat/default.asp
To make a donation to help the VMAT during this and future disasters, and to help local veterinarians treating animals injured during disasters, visit: www.avmf.org
The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) is featuring various articles pertaining to this disaster situation. To go to the JAVMA News page, you can click on:
http://www.avma.org/onlnews/default.asp
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