Global Security Newswire

An ambitious system of disease-detecting sensors dispersed in U.S. cities could falter in its mission of providing early warning of a biological-weapon attack or other outbreak, experts said in a USA Today article published today (see GSN, May 7).

Under the 6-year-old Biowatch program, scientists regularly inspect air filters from sensors fielded in more than 30 cities for lethal pathogens such as anthrax and smallpox.

"Biowatch has been the single most important federal-state program we've had in preparing the U.S. for a biologic event," said Michael Osterholm, head of the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. "It is the one thing that has brought everyone together -- law enforcement, public health, the medical assets of every community. No other program has ever done that."

Although the program helps to safeguard the United States against biological threats, the need for technicians to regularly retrieve the filters for laboratory analysis might prove to be a deadly bottleneck in an attack, said Deputy Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Robert Hooks.

As the filters are checked as little as once every 24 hours, authorities could be left with little time to verify an anthrax outbreak, trace its spread and distribute treatment to possible carriers within 72 hours, after which the agent could become fatal for those exposed, the official noted.

An ideal bioscanner would act as a "lab in a box," autonomously identifying a dangerous agent and raising an alert within six hours, Hooks said. Earlier this year, however, concerns over false alarms prompted the Homeland Security Department to scuttle an experimental network of detection units in New York designed with that purpose in mind.

The Homeland Security Department plans to issue contracts next month for development of a next-generation biosensor, USA Today reported.

There have been 6 million tests to date around the country through the air-sampling effort, which have produced dozens of warnings. None, though, involved intentional threats.

The Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism identified biological terrorism as a looming threat to U.S. security (see GSN, Sept. 23).

Anthrax released into the air is the "No. 1 aerosolized biological risk agent," Hooks said. The terrorist organization al-Qaeda is believed to have a continuing interest in development of biological warfare materials.

The Biowatch program's focus on potential biological-weapon agents has prompted some experts to question the effort, which receives $80 million in federal funding each year.

"I'm a little skeptical. Environmental sampling is something that hasn't been proven to me," said former Air Force Col. Randall Larsen, executive director of the Commission for the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism (Steve Sternberg, USA Today, Oct. 5).