Preparing for the Pope’s Visit to the United States

During the Pope’s visit to the U.S. in fall 2015, the City of Philadelphia saw between 600,000 and 1 million people travel through. The city, region and state prepared for this event for a year. PHEP and the Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) collaborated to support four medical stations and six first aid stations which saw a total of 350 patients during the event. The city also used state PHEP funds to monitor the first aid stations, hospitals, and hotels for adverse health events that would lead to quick identification of disease outbreaks.