U.S. Response:  Report Says Laboratories Unprepared for Chemical Attack

By David McGlinchey
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — U.S. laboratories are not prepared to analyze or respond to a chemical weapons attack, the Association of Public Health Laboratories announced today.

If terrorists attacked using dangerous chemical agents, laboratories would not be prepared to test environmental samples and provide crucial information on contaminated areas, according to an APHL report.  While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has taken steps to test victims in a chemical attack, environmental testing has lagged, the association says.

“State public health laboratories will be left in the lurch if the homeland were attacked today,” according to the report.

“Suppose a terrorist attacks an arena in Phoenix with a chemical weapon,” APHL Executive Director Scott Becker said, “doctors and patients’ families are clamoring for rapid identification of the agent, but the laboratory director has to send samples to a high-security laboratory on the other side of the country.  It’s the best he can do.”

Last month, the Trust for America’s Health released a similar report that said the U.S. public health system was “woefully unprepared” to deal with a terrorist attack.  That report faulted the analytical capacity of U.S. laboratories (see GSN, June 4).

Safety Concerns, Personnel Shortages

The APHL report also noted that laboratory employees could be subjected to unsafe working conditions.

“Those who weathered the anthrax attacks [of 2001] understand the consequences of accepting samples that are meant to harm … At this time, public health laboratories are being asked to evaluate chemical terrorism threats, but are not equipped to do so safely,” the report says.

Echoing a common complaint, the association said the nation’s public health infrastructure is underfunded and that an attack would stretch already scarce resources.

“There is simply no reserve workforce available to help states cope with chemical testing in the aftermath of a terrorist attack,” according to the report.

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Anthrax:  Antibiotic Treatment Might Need to Be Extended, Researchers Say

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have found that people exposed to high levels of anthrax spores may need to take antibiotics for longer than the 60-day period now recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, July 28).

Those exposed to high levels of anthrax spores may need to take antibiotics for up to four months, according to a study published yesterday in the online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  The researchers came to their conclusion using a mathematical model they developed to determine the germination time for anthrax spores in the lungs and the time needed for antibiotics to eliminate them (Associated Press/Washington Post, July 29).

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Anthrax:  White House Orders NIH to Research New Vaccine Without Additional Funding

The White House has told the U.S. National Institutes of Health that it must conduct research on a next-generation anthrax vaccine without additional funding, Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Friday (see GSN, July 11).

Funding for the vaccine project was not included in the $1.75 billion allocated for biological defense research in 2003 and 2004, according to Newsday.  The project marks the first time in NIH history that the agency has been ordered to conduct a specific research project and reallocate funds from other projects to carry it out, Fauci said.

To make up for the lack of allocated funding for the vaccine project, hundreds of scientists have seen their research grants become reduced, Newsday reported.  For example, many four-year grants have been reduced by six months.

“We’re not happy about it, but we tried to do what was least painful,” Fauci said (Laurie Garret, Newsday, July 28).

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Smallpox:  Panel Questions HHS on Low Smallpox Vaccinations

By Emily Heil

CongressDaily

WASHINGTON — U.S. public health officials faced questions from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee yesterday about why fewer healthcare workers than expected have received smallpox vaccinations, after Congress passed legislation intended to boost vaccine use in preparation for a possible bioterrorism attack (see GSN, July 17).  During a hearing on bioterrorism readiness efforts, lawmakers also said they were close to reaching an agreement on legislation enacting U.S. President George W. Bush’s “Bioshield” plan to encourage commercial development of countermeasures to biological threats (see GSN, July 17).

Congress passed the “Smallpox Emergency Protection Personnel Act” in April to compensate healthcare workers harmed by side effects of the vaccine, which has been linked to heart problems and other complications (see GSN, April 14).  The administration had hoped to vaccinate between 400,000 and 500,000 emergency and healthcare workers who might respond to a smallpox outbreak.  Democrats argued when the legislation was passed that it should be more generous in order to ensure broader participation in the vaccination effort.  As of last Friday, only 38,000 civilian public health workers have been vaccinated.

“The vaccination program is off course and behind schedule,” said senior committee Democrat Edward Kennedy (Mass.).  Kennedy pinned the blame for the delay on the failure of the Health and Human Services Department to release a table of vaccine-related injuries that are eligible for compensation, as required by the legislation.  Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said he was concerned about the delay and about the slow pace of vaccinations.  “Clearly, we haven’t gotten the vaccine out as aggressively as we should,” Gregg said.  In a letter to HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, Kennedy and Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) pressed the agency to complete work on the table.  “We are increasingly concerned by the delay,” they wrote.  “Too many first responders aware of the possibility of side effects are refusing to participate in this very high priority vaccination program.”

Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said HHS was close to completing the table, which she said was slowed by both legal and scientific issues, including a newly discovered complication involving heart attacks.  Gerberding said relatively low vaccination rates also were due to the incorrect perception that a smallpox attack is less likely than it was in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks.  With war in Afghanistan and Iraq over, people do not think smallpox is an imminent threat, she told the committee.  “We are still operating under the assumption that the smallpox threat is real,” she said.  “We have to be prepared as a nation for the possibility of a smallpox attack.”

Kennedy said he and Gregg were working to break the impasse that has prevented the Bioshield bill from reaching the Senate floor.  The bill passed the committee, but has been stymied because of concerns about its funding source.  Appropriators, including the senior Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), do not want the program to have mandatory funding.  Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Mark McClellan said passage of Bioshield legislation would help speed up research and approval of vaccines.  “Enactment of Project Bioshield is a priority for the administration,” he said.

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