Bioterror Defense and Its Impact on the Clinical Laboratory

Extract

Top government and public health officials have reported that the United States' investment of $20 billion in bioterrorism preparedness since 2001 has left the US dolefully unprepared to respond to a bioterrorism attack. Critics such as Irwin Redlener from the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University contend that bioterrorism preparedness programs are not operated in an effective manner, thus wasting billions of dollars.

Bioterrorism preparedness is the primary responsibility of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The department's responsibilities include stocking antibiotics, sharing information among laboratories and hospitals, and assisting communities in response in the event of an emergency. This is an overwhelming responsibility even for the federal government. While the government has made advances in addressing this responsibility, problems exist with some of these efforts. For example, a national stockpile of medical equipment and supplies has been amassed and can be delivered to any city within 12 hours of an attack. Unfortunately, once the cities receive the supplies they have not developed the infrastructure to deliver these supplies to their citizens in a time frame that would save lives. While the location and exact contents of the stockpile are secret, DHHS reports that there is enough smallpox vaccine for every US resident and enough antibiotics to treat 60 million people who might be exposed the most viral form of anthrax.

In 2003 President Bush announced an initiative titled Project BioShield. The project is a $5.6 billion research effort intended to spur the development of vaccines…