Many U.S. States Remain Unprepared for Biological, Chemical Attack, U.S. Official Warns

Less than one-quarter of U.S. states are able to respond 24 hours a day to reports from hospitals of possible victims of biological or chemical attacks, a senior U.S. health official said yesterday, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Jan. 18).

In addition, many states still have not reviewed quarantine regulations and many are not able to immunize large groups of people using drugs from the Strategic National Stockpile of medical supplies, said William Raub the Health and Human Services Department’s principal deputy assistant secretary for public health emergency preparedness.

More than 90 percent of states, however, have met the federal target of having one or more epidemiologist in every metropolitan area of more than 500,000 people, Raub said (Daniel Yee, Associated Press/Macon Telegraph, Feb. 23).

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