Readers: This post was originally published in the Washington Examiner, 10/22/2009. As with many issues that we cover, there has been little in the way of  progress.

There is new concern for an old threat, Bioterrorism. Post 9/11, threat of non-state terrorists using an almost endless list of biologic agents enjoyed a very high profile. The new Graham/Talent report……posits that the national attention to preparedness for bioterrorism has lost its vigor. We have, for years, expressed our disappointment with the national movement away from bioterrorism preparedness to pandemic flu. The opportunity lost to achieve the dual benefits of being prepared for bioterrorism and creating a solid defense against all evolving infectious diseases is incalculable.

We do not minimize the current H1N1 threat but simply want to point out that the threat we face today provided us with a substantial lead-time to prepare. We know the cyclical nature of the disease and have observed its seasonal impact on the southern hemisphere. Many are disturbed with the nation’s response to a known agent and what appears to be a breakdown in our ability to cope with and record the events as they transpire. Reports of some areas stopping the testing for H1N1, “false negatives†and provider’s frustration abound. State and local website overload has resulted in denial of needed information to the public when the chips are down.

Unexpected biological agents introduced intentionally or by accident into the environment are fraught with unimaginable consequences. Some speculate that the greatest danger comes from the unbridled proliferation of bio-laboratories across the country.(DHS Countermeasures) Along with the host of new bio-labs are an estimated 15,000 individuals working with these deadly agents. Proper vetting of these employees is a challenge and gaps in disciplined background searches create potential “insider threatâ€. Recent Senate hearings on the lack of security and cavalier manner in which the bio-lab community has responded to known threats is scandalous. Senator Susan Collins was clearly disturbed over last week’s DHS OIG report which identified gaps in site security.
The introduction of bio-agents into a hospital setting, already challenged by “healthcare acquired infectionsâ€, would be devastating. Depending on the bio-agent, the transmission period could be days or weeks before it was identified. It takes little imagination to visualize the extent of contamination and the cost in lives.
The news release, Chicago, March 13, 2003 by the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE)-“Hospital CEOs Say Bioterrorism Plans Are in Place†may have been premature. The specter of a uniformed maintenance person with fabricated identity card showing up in the middle of the night to fix a disabled air conditioning unit may have among other items in his toolkit a couple cylinders of “weaponized bio-agentâ€. In our earlier articles we address the vulnerability of Hospitals as “soft and desirable†terrorist’s targets. The “terror multiplier effect†of total contamination of healthcare facility is hard to resist.