The United States has plans to distribute medicine for some diseases in case of a bioterrorist attack, but several obstacles to a successful response remain, according to current and former U.S. officials.

In the event of a biological attack, the government will immediately ship 50-ton packages of medical supplies able to treat 10,000 to 35,000 people to local hospitals on the first day of response.  These supplies are stored at eight sites around the country.  After the initial shipment, authorities will ship more supplies from other stockpiles and sources and begin emergency production. 

The United States currently has antibiotics to treat 2 million anthrax cases and has plans to stockpile enough for 10 million people, according to government officials (see GSN, this issue).  There are also caches of antibiotics, such as streptomycin and gentamicin, to treat other diseases, such as the plague. 

Experts are trying to find ways to overcome remaining obstacles.  One of the largest problems is quickly identifying an outbreak, as some diseases incubate for days to weeks.  The Sept. 11 attacks, however, have raised awareness.  Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director Jeffery Koplan said a Florida state lab worker recently trained by the CDC tested the blood of a man in Florida who became ill with anthrax this week and sounded the alarm (see GSN, this issue).  Koplan said that might not have happened before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Another obstacle is deciding who distributes drugs to whom and how to mobilize workers in the case of a crisis.  New York has set up 300 potential distribution points, and if all 300 locations were needed, 40,000 workers would have to staff them, bioterrorism specialist Jerry Hauer said (Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press/Miami Herald, Oct. 5).

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