Federal Health Officials Outline Progress in Bioterrorism Response Plans, HHS Advisory Committee Raises Concerns
CDC officials said on Aug. 27 that they have taken necessary steps over the last year to better prepare for a bioterrorist attack, the New York Times reports. The agency was "severely criticized" for being unprepared and communicating poorly with the public after the anthrax attacks last year, but officials say that since then, they have consulted with experts on how to improve the agency's response. Speaking at a press conference, CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding and other officials outlined the steps the agency has taken, including opening new laboratories, adding antibiotics and vaccines to its stockpiles and teaching health care professionals and epidemiologists how to respond to an attack. Officials said that they "made it a priority" to upgrade the CDC emergency response operations center (Altman, New York Times, 8/28). The CDC also has improved its monitoring of emergency rooms, 911 calls and calls to poison-control centers and has hired experts to improve its communication with health officials and the public (Harris, Wall Street Journal, 8/28). Despite those changes, officials say that the agency still has "more work to do" to better detect a potential bioterrorist attack at the earliest possible stages. To meet that challenge, Dr. James Hughes, director of the CDC's infectious disease center, said the agency has hired additional staff and has been using the recent outbreak of the West Nile virus to practice responding to unfamiliar diseases. Gerberding said the West Nile outbreak "illustrates the concept that the kinds of investment that we make in public health to handle natural public health problems are exactly the same infrastructure and the same mechanisms that we use for dealing with a terrorism attack." She added, "We are building terrorism capacity on the foundation of public health, but we are also using the new investments in terrorism to strengthen the public health foundation [because] these two programs are inextricably linked" (New York Times, 8/28).
Advisory Panel Recommendations
Although the federal government has "beefed up" its drug and vaccine stockpiles, many communities are not ready for a bioterrorist attack, according to a federal advisory panel, USA Today reports. The HHS Secretary's Council on Public Health Preparedness, which is tasked with preparing the country for a potential bioterrorist attack, concluded its first meeting on Aug. 27 and said that major U.S. cities are still vulnerable to such an attack. Members of the council raised concerns about several "unresolved" issues with the county's smallpox vaccine policy (Sternberg, USA Today, 8/28). Although a national advisory panel in June issued preliminary recommendations limiting vaccinations to health care and emergency workers, public health officials are waiting for a final decision (Kemper, Los Angeles Times, 8/28). Specifically, council members said questions about liability issues surrounding vaccine-related death or injury still remain. In addition, the council expressed concern about the lack of coordination between public and private health systems and the need for a "seamless" method to track diseases (USA Today, 8/28). Despite the concerns, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson said, "We are much better prepared than the American public thinks we are," (Los Angeles Times, 8/28).
Pentagon Involvement
In related news, the Defense Department is launching a two-year, $300 million pilot program to test the ability of monitoring and reporting systems to identify disease outbreaks. As part of the project, four cities will receive a medical surveillance system that will collect data from hospitals and doctors to search for symptom "spikes." The system also includes environmental monitors that will take air samples to test for biological agents. The system does not require extra input from health care professionals. Instead, it "mines data" kept by hospitals and pharmacies. Personal information from the records will pass through the system. If a biological attack is detected, the system will notify health officials. Washington, D.C., and Albuquerque, N.M., have volunteered to test the system, and the Defense Department will hold a competition to select the other two cities next year (Hess, UPI/Washington Times, 8/28).
Tracking System Needed
While Congress has "shovel[ed]" funding into programs to improve defenses against bioterrorism, lawmakers need to create a national chronic disease tracking system, according to a Los Angeles Times editorial. In recent years, the number of chronic and infectious diseases has increased rapidly, the Times reports, noting that the number of children with asthma has jumped 20% in the last decade, and the number affected by the West Nile virus has increased from 160 to 371 in the last week and a half. When Congress returns from its recess, it should recognize that "protecting Americans against foreign threats, be they biological or chemical, starts with health tracking at home," the Times concludes (Los Angeles Times, 8/28).
