U.S. Still Unprepared for Bioterrorism
Source: United Press International
February 17, 2001
SAN FRANCISCO, (UPI) -- The threat of a bioterrorist
attack on the United States is not being adequately addressed though
progress on preparations is being made, a panel of scientists and
physicians told the annual meeting of American Association for the
Advancement of Science Saturday.
"The threat is very real and growing, we cannot afford
to be complacent," said Margaret Hamburg, former assistant secretary
for planning and evaluation at the Department of Health and Human
Services.
Even the several hundred millions of dollars invested in
research and development on methods to deal with a bioterrorist threat
is too low, said Col. Edward Eitzen, commander of the U.S. Army
Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md.
A recent Internet search, said Eitzen, turned up 54
firms that will ship and sell anthrax microbes and 18 that will do the
same for plague-causing bacteria.
The public health infrastructure in the U.S. is not up
to dealing with such a threat, said Hamburg. It is not well integrated
into the existing medical system and most medical practitioners simply
would be unable to recognize the symptoms of illnesses brought on by a
biological weapons attack.
Such a biological attack could be particularly insidious
said Eitzen. For example smallpox symptoms can take 10 to 14 days to
develop -- during that period, infected individuals can be unknowingly
spreading the disease.
The response of the public health and medical system
will be crucial in determining whether a bioterrorist attack can be
dealt with in a timely way or becomes a "runaway event," said Morse.
But even determining if an attack is underway may not be easy. Many of
the symptoms of biological agents, such as the microbes causing
tularemia and Q-fever, can’t be distinguished from the flu, explained
Stephen Morse, director of the Center for Public Health Preparedness
at Columbia University.
New genetic technologies, if implemented, can make an
important contribution to speedily detecting the infectious agent
causing an outbreak, said J. Craig Venter, president of Celera
Genomics of Rockville, Md. Obtaining the complete genome of pathogens
offers the ability to distinguish a bioterrorist attack from a
naturally emerging pathogen, he said. Such information can play an
important role in protecting public health and in the government’s
response to such a situation.
Also needed are new, speedy portable technologies to
detect and diagnose whether people have been exposed to pathogens in a
bioterrorist attack. Such technologies are being developed, said
Morse, "but we’re not there yet."
Copyright 2001 by United Press International
by Harvey Black
UPI Science News
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