U.S. sets goal to stockpile antidotes
Homeland security officials aren’t prepared to handle a biological threat, one official testified.
Providence Journal
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — If a virus or a biological attack such as airborne anthrax spread through a midsize city it may not be detected for days.
And then, many people would suddenly flood into doctors’ offices and hospital emergency rooms, overwhelming the health-care providers who’d be attempting to treat the ill and find out the cause. By then, the illness would have progressed and spread, becoming difficult to treat as it took hold at every level of society.
This is the description used by Dr. Jeffrey Runge, the assistant secretary for health affairs and chief medical officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as he testified this week about the possibility of a biological threat in the country and how prepared health and homeland security officials were to handle it.
U.S. Rep. James Langevin, the chairman of the House Subcommittee of Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, Science and Technology, convened a field hearing in Providence on Tuesday to gauge the progress of the preparedness for a biological threat.
State and federal officials told the subcommittee that plans and preparation had progressed, but more work needed to be done. The national stockpile of antidotes is being built, the federal government is working with companies to develop vaccines and antidotes to biological threats, and more technology is needed to detect an airborne biological hazard.
On a state level, while hospital officials and medical professionals have become more prepared to deal with a sudden surge of patients, they know a large-scale disaster would leave them struggling to maintain care.
While much of the federal government’s focus has been on explosive devices, Rear Adm. W. Craig Vanderwagen, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told the committee that he believes that biological attacks and the spread of pandemic flu would have a more widespread effect, touching every level of society.
The U.S. health and human services has set a goal to stockpile enough antiviral antidotes to treat 81 million people. Most of the states have enrolled in a federally subsidized program to buy their own antiviral supplies.