Julie Gerberding Quotes (73 Quotes)

We are cautiously optimistic that at least in some parts of the country, influenza may have peaked. But there's still plenty of flu out there, and we're still encouraging people with flu-like illness who meet the criteria for concerns or complications to be sure and seek medical attention if they do develop the illness.

This actually is the largest outbreak of mumps that we have seen in this country in more than 20 years.

It hasn't reached what we call the epidemic threshold status yet, in terms of deaths from influenza-like illness. But we won't be surprised if that happens given the pattern emerging right now.

But any time you have this kind of crowding and people under stress, we have to be concerned.

We're asking those who provide influenza to give the first available doses to people in our priority groups ... Getting an influenza vaccine is the best way to protect yourself and your patients against this disease,

Even though we're hoping that we're past the peak for this early phase of the season, in past years we have seen flu come back, ... And we've also seen new strains emerge late in the season. So it's still important to be vigilant.

We also have a public health system that's been gearing up for terrorism and other threats, and really stood pointed and ready to engage in this effort.

We've no idea if it will become transmissible from one person to another efficiently, but we've got to take the steps now to get prepared for that.

Your hands are the most important means from which germs travel from one person to another. So it would make sense that washing your hands would be an effective strategy for protecting yourself.

Rule No. 1 is to isolate people who are infected so they don't infect anyone else.

Day by day, we are winning the war against cancer.

It would be unusual for measles or rubella or the other childhood-vaccine-preventable diseases to emerge, but many of the people in these shelters are among the people in our country who already experience health disparities, and we're erring on the side of immunizing anyone for whom we have any reason to suspect their vaccination status is not up-to-date.

The sudden appearance of the disease has led some people to speculate that it could be the work of terrorists. All indications right now is that this is a naturally occurring infectious disease, ... We're keeping an open mind about terrorism, especially given the time period that we're operating in.

Still, in some communities, specific advice about vaccine availability might differ, ... pay attention to what local health officials say.

In addition to food safety, the emphasis on hand hygiene and common practices to prevent spread has just been enormous. I was in the Astrodome, and there was just a long row of sinks that had been brought in to help people wash their hands, help the health care workers wash their hands. Also, the people staying there are being given those hand-cleaning products that contain gels and so forth.

We believe the health hazard from this water is still a very important threat for people who have yet to evacuate, ... The results from the EPA indicate the water is full of sewage. We know it's not safe.

My own mother called me this week because her doctor told her that the vaccine was not available,

Today, CDC has followed suit and has published the sequence of the virus.

If we do the kind of common-sense public health measures we know work, we ought to be able to stop it from being a global pandemic,

Other countries, like Hong Kong, have just not been able to keep the epidemic under control, and I wish we knew why,

We have a stockpile. We have more drugs than we've ever had to treat this condition. I feel like we are taking responsible steps, but we need to solve the problem with the vaccine manufacturing and that's a problem that's been 25 years in the making.

What we need to do is get them where we need them the most, that's our challenge right now, ... But we're very optimistic that the seniors and very young children and those who need the doses will be able to get them.

While the risk of the situation is very low, we're not taking any chances and we're doing everything we can to make sure that there is no threat to human health.

what we're seeing is well within the normal range for this time of year.

Lots of people are at risk. It's not too late to get vaccinated, ... And we really want people to keep looking for vaccine, to contact the providers.

This is a tragic virus, but it is mainly there in that province, and is a very low threat to people here in this country.

The specter of pandemic influenza is very frightening to people, ... It does remind people of the importance of influenza as an illness ... and in the long run may result in people being motivated.

These data indicate that the magnitude of the problem is larger than we once thought,

The best protection against the mumps is the vaccine. We have seen that work successfully in the past. So we hope that will be successful this time.

The water is full of sewage, ... cooperate with the evacuation effort and leave.

We do have disease detectives who are working to study some features of the outbreak so we can learn as the virus spreads from community to community.

We expect more cases - definitely. We really can't predict at this point of time where the virus will go next.

So we're getting off to a bit of a slow start, ... That gives us a little more time to get those doses out there.

We might actually end up with the most-ever influenza vaccine produced in this country,

We really don't have any evidence that antibacterial soaps are any better than plain soap and water,

We know it's going to take time, ... It's requiring a lot of patience on everyone's part to get through this.

People who place large orders for vaccine tend to get preferential treatment by distributors. This is a market distribution problem that's difficult to fix from a government perspective.

We know that our ability to effectively communicate, along with our skills in using computers and other information technologies, are very important in our efforts to improve people's health and well being. With these initial investments in four new Centers of Excellence, we hope to identify new tools, approaches, and strategies for managing health records, bringing together disease information from different places, understanding the questions and concerns of patients, and educating people about ways to improve their health. The more we learn about when and how to use health communication and electronic information systems, the better able we'll be to meet the needs of people in the community.

This year's flu season is not off to an aggressive start. We have less flu in the country than we did this time last year,

The biggest challenge of all is going to be maintaining the chronic-care services to the people who had them before the hurricane ever hit,

We want to use the drugs that we believe would be the most effective, ... by preventing what could be an extremely serious infectious disease.

It is too early to tell if it's SARS. Anyone with pneumonia and a travel history is going to be under investigation. ... If you've not gone there, don't be concerned about it at this point.

I'm sorry that this is becoming a political issue. This is really a health issue,

We expect we'll have time for most people to receive their vaccine.

We could see an outbreak today, or we may not ever see an outbreak of infectious disease in this context. It is too soon to say.

There is no firm dividing line between what is an epidemic and what is not an epidemic, but I think, when you look at a map that shows widespread influenza activity in 36 states, that we regard it -- from a common-sense perspective -- as an epidemic.

As an infectious disease expert, I've never seen a pathogen emerge and go away on its own, ... We have to expect that sometime, somewhere, this virus is going to rear its ugly head again.

With the Food and Drug Administration we are prepared to manage any food- or water-borne disease. Over the next days to weeks we could see the emergence of mosquito populations and West Nile Virus,

So we really need to help people move beyond the threat of the infectious disease and really think about the sadness and the difficulty that the people who are searching for their relatives are really experiencing in this context.

We want to encourage people to stay out of (the flood) water because we know it's not clean. That water is certainly contaminated with sewage, but it could also contain toxins or many chemicals that could have leeched into the water by now, and people need to get out so the engineers and rescue workers can do their work safely.