Public health effort gathers steam

The public health effort in the states damaged by Katrina pressed on over the weekend. HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt declared a federal public health emergency in Texas, the state which has accepted the most refugees from New Orleans and its neighbors. HHS said it has shipped 90,000 doses of tetanus vaccine, 22,000 doses of Hepatitis A vaccine and 36,000 doses of Hepatitis B vaccine. Much media attention focused on Louis Armstrong International airport, where thousands of patients have been treated at a makeshift hospital since the middle of last week. Authorities say that on Friday, when the flow was heaviest, doctors and other emergency personnel at the airport faced the arrival of 2,000 new patients an hour.

- see this story from The Washington Post

PLUS: Vehicles carrying patients from HCA hospitals in New Orleans left the city protected by armed private guards. Story

ALSO: Careful planning and considerable luck have left the famed Ochsner clinic the only major hospital still in operation in New Orleans. Story

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