Since 2011, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and United States (U.S.) have been collaborating to conduct inter- and intra-governmental exercises to jointly respond to biological events in Korea. These exercises highlight U.S. interest in increasing its global biosurveillance capability and the ROK’s interest in improving cooperation among ministries to respond to crises. With Able Response (AR) exercises, the ROK and U.S. have improved coordination among US and ROK government and defense agencies responding to potential bio-threats and identified additional areas on which to apply refinements in policies and practices. In 2014, the AR exercise employed a Biosurveillance Portal (BSP) to facilitate more effective communication among participating agencies and countries including Australia. In the present paper, we seek to provide a comprehensive assessment of the AR 2014 (AR14) exercise and make recommendations for future improvements. Incorporating a more realistic response in future scenarios by integrating a tactical response episode in the exercise is recommended.
Australia ; Biosurveillance ; Disease Outbreaks ; Exercise ; Korea ; Public Health ; Republic of Korea ; United States

In public health emergency arising from an infectious disease epidemic, the local government is responsible for protecting the community residents by containing the spread of the disease. Such role requires close collaboration with the central government and health care institutions. Preparedness capabilities of the local government include biosurveillance, community resilience, countermeasures and mitigation, incident management, information management, and surge management. During the epidemic of Middle East respiratory syndrome in Korea, local governments exercised great efforts in contact management, patient identification, and patient management. Korea Ministry of Health and Welfare is promoting for the local governments to prepare the infectious disease emergency preparedness plan by providing a common framework. Community preparedness involves the roles of health care institutions in order to protect the residents' health. Hospitals and primary care clinics need to maintain sufficient levels of preparedness to secure safe environment and to provide sustainable service during the emergency situations.
Biosurveillance ; Civil Defense* ; Communicable Diseases ; Cooperative Behavior ; Coronavirus Infections ; Delivery of Health Care ; Emergencies* ; Humans ; Information Management ; Korea ; Local Government* ; Primary Health Care ; Public Health*