Friday, October 17, 2003

Bioterrorism training received by Fairburn

By Lindsay Bianchi
Special to The Citizen

In today’s world, you have to be ready for anything, whether it’s the occasional antacid to quell the fire from an indigestible dinner or a handy pair of rubber gloves to open the daily mail in case of a “white powder incident.”

• This past Friday, the Fairburn Police Department was instructed in bioterrorism emergency response in a one day seminar conducted by Bruce Jeffries of the Georgia Department of Human Resources and Dr. Cherrie Drenzek of the Georgia Division of Public Health.

• The presentation covered two separate, but equally serious scenarios requiring the force’s quick and rational action. Outbreaks such as the recent SARS virus in Canada and the Hepatitis A incident in North Georgia were used to illustrate the procedures followed in unintentional circumstances. In the event of an intentional act of bioterrorism like the anthrax scare of a few years ago, the picture being created was a much darker one.

• Officers in attendance were given warning signs,such as clusters of dead birds or animals which may point to a biological act of terror. Monitoring emergency room illness trends was another key given for their use.

• In the case of a chemical spill from a derailed train, the “hot zone,” as it is called, is comparatively easy to contain, officials said. But, when there is a saboteur involved sprinkling drops into salad bars around town from a stolen bottle of salmonella, the fallout can be widespread and more difficult to pinpoint.

• It takes a lot of scientific detective work to isolate and track epidemics both intentional and unintentional. Thankfully, there is a good size team of individuals involved on the local, state and national levels.

• When bioterrorism is suspected, such as the anthrax letter received in a politician’s office recently, local law enforcement conducts a “threat assessment” of the situation. Based on their evaluation, the FBI will be notified as well as the Public Health Department. Local Hazardous Material personnel are called to the scene and proceed to isolate the area. Ventilation is shut off and the source of contamination, in this case the letter, is triple bagged.

The police transport the bagged letter to Georgia Public Health Laboratory to be tested. The lab results are reported back to the scene and the public is then notified of any danger.

• In the worst case scenario, a number of classified locations, part of the Strategic National Stockpile, sit in wait of such an event. Developed by the federal government in 1999, each one holds 50 tons of pharmaceuticals, IV’s, ventilators and vaccines. When, and if it is needed, eight semi-tractor trailers will transport the supplies to an emergency site within eight hours, officials said.

• “The SARS outbreak taught us a lot about bioterrorism.” Dr. Drenzek pointed out. “We learned a lot about quarantine and isolation from it.”

Many homes in Canada had to be monitored by telephone to ensure public safety.

Legislation was ultimately needed to deter people from breaking quarantine. Financial support was required of the government to provide food and supplies.

• Bioterrorism has been around since the 1980s but biowarfare is nothing new. As far back as the middle ages, warring factions have stooped to catapulting corpses with plague over castle walls in order to infect the other side. Today’s methods may be much more sophisticated, but the intent is just as barbaric.