29 November 2000 Kennedy Urges Action to Prepare for Potential Biological Terrorism Washington -- New legislation signed into law earlier this month by President Clinton aims at boosting the ability of the U.S. public health network to cope with what many experts see as the growing threat of potentially devastating terrorist attacks with biological weapons. Senator Edward Kennedy, who is co-author -- with Senator Bill Frist (Republican, Tennessee) -- of the Public Health Threats and Emergencies Act, said November 29 that he is hopeful that the new law "will begin to give the nation's dedicated medical and public health professionals the support they need for effective defenses against bioterrorism." Terming biological weapons "the ultimate in stealth technology," Kennedy observed that a bioterrorist attack would produce "no sudden explosion or flash of light to announce that a terrorist attack has taken place." Rather, he said, "a bioterrorist attack could announce itself slowly and quietly, when patients begin to arrive at hospitals and clinics with symptoms as seemingly innocuous as mild fever, headaches or muscle pains." "In the wake of a bioterrorist attack, medical professionals will have to act quickly to recognize the signs and symptoms of exposure to a biological weapon," Kennedy continued. "Hospitals and public health laboratories will need to identify the pathogens used in the attack. Public health agencies must monitor the disease outbreak and mobilize the medical resources to contain it. The special skills of federal health agencies must be ready to supplement state and local efforts." Kennedy said funds under the new law can be used to add needed equipment and train personnel. On that latter point, he cited a recent study showing that "more than 90 percent of the doctors in some hospitals had received no training in recognizing the symptoms of exposure to a biological weapon -- and over 60 percent did not even know where to report such symptoms if they were detected." The senator said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) own facilities "are in an alarming state of disrepair," compromising that agency's vital role in minimizing the damage from a potential terrorist attack. For example, he said, "Some of the world's most dangerous microbes are kept in buildings with less security than a county courthouse." The new law, he said, "authorizes an extensive modernization and security upgrade of CDC's laboratories, so that its scientists can work in secure facilities with state of the art equipment." He called on Congress to provide full funding to make sure that the law's provisions are translated into effective action. Kennedy made his comments in a speech, delivered by telephone from Boston, at the Second National Symposium on Bioterrorism, held in Washington under the sponsorship of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. The Massachusetts Democrat's strongly worded concerns were right in line with the thrust of presentations at the two-day conference by public health and medical officials, research scientists, law enforcement officials and national security experts -- many of whom warned that the United States is simply not ready to deal with what is a very real and grave terrorist threat. Speaking earlier, an expert in defense preparedness at Harvard University told the conferees that "U.S. biodefense is disorganized and excessively fragmented," leaving it unclear who would be in charge in the wake of such a terrorist attack. George Poste, chief executive officer of Health Technology Networks, a consulting group based in Scottsdale, Arizona, advised his audience to "be paranoid," flatly warning them that "we are vulnerable." And Dr. Jeff Koplan, head of the CDC, said that, despite new infusions of federal dollars, "we are barely getting started" in dealing with the potential problem. Koplan observed that efforts are accelerating to improve monitoring efforts, develop tests to detect deadly agents, and set up laboratories capable of rapid response when threatening specimens show up. (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov) Return to the Washington File