Global Security Newswire

In the event of a large-scale biological weapons attack, a number of major U.S. population centers have been judged insufficiently prepared to take shipment of and disseminate medical countermeasures from the federal government's Strategic National Stockpile, according to a December analysis by Forbes magazine (see GSN, Feb. 16).

The business publication calculated the average of the three scores given to high-density Metropolitan Statistical Areas since 2007 under the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Cities Readiness Initiative. Cities with 69 or more points were judged to have developed adequate protocols to receive and pass out countermeasures such as vaccines and antibiotics.

By that calculation, Albuquerque, N.M., with a score of 50.6 was ranked as the large U.S. city least prepared to distribute countermeasures. Birmingham, Ala., and Fresno, Calif., with respective scores of 54 and 56, were ranked the second and third worst prepared urban areas, followed by Pittsburgh, Pa., and Portland, Maine, with individual scores of 57 and  58.

New York City was judged the most prepared with an average score of 99.6, followed by Dover, Del. with an average score of 97.6 and Chicago with a score of 97.3.

In its scoring, the Centers for Disease Control looked at the countermeasure dissemination procedures, public information campaigns and overall preparedness of health responders of 72 major U.S. metropolitan areas and four other cities (William Pentland, Forbes, Dec. 5).

Public health officials in western Pennsylvania rejected the Forbes report conclusions that the seven-county Pittsburgh metropolitan area was not prepared to respond to a biowarfare strike, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported on Thursday.

"(The counties) absolutely have the ability to dispense medical countermeasures, and they've proven it in real events as well as exercises," Pennsylvania Health Department Public Health Preparedness Office Director Shannon Calluori told the newspaper.

Allegheny County Health Department spokesman Guillermo Cole said additional education and preparation have enabled the county's scores to consistently improve since 2007. In the last scoring, Allegheny County came close to achieving an unblemished score.

"It matters where you are today and not where you were yesterday. We've made improvements, and we have demonstrated the ability to execute a plan," the spokesman said (Bill Vidonic, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Dec. 15).