Strategic National Stockpile

Mission

The Strategic National Stockpile program provides lifesaving pharmaceuticals, antidotes and other medical supplies in the event of a public health emergency.

What it means to you

The Center for Disease Control's (CDC) Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) has large quantities of medicine and medical supplies to protect the American public if there is a public health emergency (terrorist attack, flu outbreak, earthquake) severe enough to cause local supplies to run out. Once Federal and local authorities agree that the SNS is needed, medicines will be delivered to any state in the U.S. within 12 hours. The State of California and the County of Orange are engaged in planning to receive and distribute the needed medicines to our community.
 

• ►The SNS has stockpiled enough medicine to protect people in several large cities at the same time.

• ►Health Disaster Management, in collaboration with other county planners are working to ensure that medicines will be delivered to the affected cities to protect you and your family if there is a natural or manmade disaster.

• ►Local communities are prepared to receive SNS medicine and medical supplies from the Health Care Agency to provide medicine to everyone in the community who needs them.

• ►The Cities Readiness Initiative (CRI) is a federally funded effort to prepare major US cities and metropolitan areas to effectively respond to a large scale bioterrorist event by dispensing antibiotics to their entire identified population within 48 hours of the decision to do so.

• ►Several Orange County cities have collaborated with the Health Care Agency to exercise this system through the annual Point of Dispensing (POD) exercises.