Fayette County High School became the site of a mass dispensing effort Feb. 22 as local and regional public health and public safety personnel responded to a mock terrorism exercise. The scenario: A bioterrorism incident in Fayette County involving inhalation anthrax.

Operation Rapid Response brought together more than 100 participants from around the region to test each agency’s ability to respond to the mock public health emergency.

Explaining the rationale for the exercise, Georgia Department of Public Health District 4 spokesperson Hayla Hall said the full-scale exercise was based on a meeting of core group professionals last fall and a tabletop exercise conducted in January at Lafayette Education Center involving all the agencies that would be involved in a public health emergency inside Fayette County.

“At that time, a scenario was given with residents presenting at Piedmont Fayette Hospital with similar symptoms,” said Hall. “The cause of the fictitious illness was determined to be inhalation anthrax and further steps were taken to secure medications and a location for dispensing medications. That next step was exercised at the full-scale drill Feb. 22 as a continuation of the anthrax scenario and concluded with more than 300 people being processed through the point of dispensing in less than an hour and a half.”

Approximately 80 local residents participated in the mock drill, arriving at the high school in need of assessment and potentially in need of medical assistance.

Volunteers were routed several times through the system set up by health and medical staff to help determine the effectiveness of the drill.

Volunteers received their assessments and were directed by health workers to various locations in the school to receive medications for inhalation anthrax.

Other volunteers posing as residents in immediate need of medical care were transported to Piedmont Fayette Hospital where another portion of the drill was being conducted.

“We laid the plans for today’s drill in our earlier meetings. Today, all the agencies were in the building,” Hall said. “We had 80 volunteers who came forward to participate in the drill. With that, it is still hard for us to test our capacity to determine how many people we can get through in an hour. Our goal is to be able to get 1,000 people through a dispensing site in an hour.”

Most counties in Georgia have yet to conduct a full-scale disaster drill. For Fayette County, the mock drill gave local medical, emergency management and public health officials a look at what would be expected if or when a true health emergency should arise.

“I think it was a great success, with mostly smooth flow and just enough problems to give us ideas on ways to improve. It will help us identify critical areas of improvement such as pre-event training, patient flow and logistics,” said Dr. Michael Brackett, medical director for District 4 Health Services. “It served as a good learning experience and an opportunity for public health staff to work side by side with local emergency management, public safety officials, and local medical care givers. I can’t thank our community partners enough for their participation with this event.”

Agencies participating in the exercise included Fayette County Health Department, Fayette Fire and Emergency Services, Fayetteville Police, Fayette County Board of Education, Piedmont Fayette Hospital and Georgia Dept. of Public Health.

Hall said all exercise participants have been asked to provide written comments to be included in a formal After Action Report. The report is currently being compiled and will be available at a later date, Hall said.

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