Anne wrote:
>In talking to several people, there seems to be confusion over a certain
>point-- the State of NJ DOES recognize the CDC Rabies Compendium.  You can
>verify this with Senior Public Health Veterinarian, Faye Sorhage, VMD, MPH
>609-588-3121.
 
Goodness YES!  The Compendium was followed here in New Jersey starting the
very next day after it was passed by the National Association of State
Public Health Veterinarians.  They didn't even wait in-state for the
implimentation date early that following year, and it would have been done
even earlier if it could have been since she was involved in the assessment
of thte CDC's work.  They held seminars to teach the county and community
health people and they sent out fliers and such multiple times to those
people.  There still at times seems to be confusion among emergency room
physicians; one of their profession's publications has been years behind
the times in articles more than a few times -- even to the point of not
knowing about IMRAB-3.  It pays to let all emergency rooms know about
contacting the state and about the Compendium and extensive CDC work as
a result.  That's not New Jersey's fault; it's the fault of journal and
it's editors being in the stone age.  You can download the 3 parts of the
Compendium to goive to them form the AVMA site or photocopy it from the
first JAVMA of any year for them.  Scary how behind the times such a health
publication can be; keep hoping its subscribers help it to advance and
hopefully they have already done so.  This is a problem in EVERY state
which required regular local monitoring and regular notes with copies of
Compendium sent by locals to their area's emergency room professionals,
with reminders to consult with given state's experts on the topic and read
the reasssuring CDC work.  What may be most useful is to get a letter
form your state public health vet in charge of rabies policy and send a
photocopy of that with the Compendium to emergency rooms.  sadly, this heas
to be be repeated till all the medical journals get up to date instead of
being years behind.
[Posted in FML issue 3259]