美国努力加强对生物恐怖主义行动的防御
WASHINGTON, Oct 05 (Reuters Health) - The public health workers and healthcare providers the US government would rely on to defend and protect Americans from a possible bioterrorism attack are largely untrained and lack key resources, bioterrorism experts say.
While the US government plans to begin pouring money into programs designed to monitor for and respond to a biological attack--and had already begun making efforts to strengthen these programs before September 11's terror attacks--experts warn that the nation remains vulnerable on many fronts.
, 百拇医药
This vulnerability is largely due to weaknesses in US healthcare infrastructures, especially the public health system, which the experts suggest has been weakened by years of underfunding. Other problems include physicians untrained in the diagnosis and treatment of conditions caused by rogue germs, sketchy communication response systems and inadequate stockpiles of vaccines and medications for disease treatment.
In a report issued late last month, the US General Accounting Office cited the nation's "insufficient...planning for response to terrorist events, inadequacies in the public health infrastructure, a lack of hospital participation in training on terrorism and emergency response planning, insufficient capacity for treating mass casualties from a terrorist act, and the timely availability of medical teams and resources in an emergency."
, 百拇医药
Since the attacks, Congress and the Bush administration have called for sharp spending increases in the nation's anti-bioterrorism efforts, particularly in health-related programs.
"Clearly, public health is a national security issue," Sue Reingold told Reuters Health. Reingold, a visiting fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, directed a recent war game that simulated a biological attack on the US using smallpox. The exercise, dubbed Dark Winter and held this June, ended with no resolution to the epidemic.
, 百拇医药
CDC STILL ON ALERT
On the day of the attacks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instructed the nation's local and state public health agencies "to monitor for any possible unusual disease patterns associated with today's events, including chemical and biological agents." These agencies remain on alert.
Healthcare professionals would be on the front lines to identify, track and contain a germ attack and any ensuing epidemic, and to treat victims and those at risk. Doctors and nurses would most likely be the first to see signs of the attack, as victims began to seek treatment.
, http://www.100md.com
But signs of a biological attack may not be immediately evident. Disease incubation periods run from days to weeks, depending on the germ, and symptoms could appear influenza-like.
Americans would have to rely on healthcare providers to report such innocuous signs to public health officials. Public health officials would then attempt to identify the agent used in an attack and contain its spread.
But the cash-strapped state of the public health system, as well as financial pressures on healthcare providers and the medical system, make an effective response to a bioterrorism threat questionable at best, experts warn.
"Today, a major epidemic arising either from a natural emerging infection or an act of bioterrorism would pose serious challenges to the US public health system," Dr. Jonathan Tucker, director of the Monterey Institute of International Studies' Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program, told a congressional panel Wednesday., 百拇医药
While the US government plans to begin pouring money into programs designed to monitor for and respond to a biological attack--and had already begun making efforts to strengthen these programs before September 11's terror attacks--experts warn that the nation remains vulnerable on many fronts.
, 百拇医药
This vulnerability is largely due to weaknesses in US healthcare infrastructures, especially the public health system, which the experts suggest has been weakened by years of underfunding. Other problems include physicians untrained in the diagnosis and treatment of conditions caused by rogue germs, sketchy communication response systems and inadequate stockpiles of vaccines and medications for disease treatment.
In a report issued late last month, the US General Accounting Office cited the nation's "insufficient...planning for response to terrorist events, inadequacies in the public health infrastructure, a lack of hospital participation in training on terrorism and emergency response planning, insufficient capacity for treating mass casualties from a terrorist act, and the timely availability of medical teams and resources in an emergency."
, 百拇医药
Since the attacks, Congress and the Bush administration have called for sharp spending increases in the nation's anti-bioterrorism efforts, particularly in health-related programs.
"Clearly, public health is a national security issue," Sue Reingold told Reuters Health. Reingold, a visiting fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, directed a recent war game that simulated a biological attack on the US using smallpox. The exercise, dubbed Dark Winter and held this June, ended with no resolution to the epidemic.
, 百拇医药
CDC STILL ON ALERT
On the day of the attacks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instructed the nation's local and state public health agencies "to monitor for any possible unusual disease patterns associated with today's events, including chemical and biological agents." These agencies remain on alert.
Healthcare professionals would be on the front lines to identify, track and contain a germ attack and any ensuing epidemic, and to treat victims and those at risk. Doctors and nurses would most likely be the first to see signs of the attack, as victims began to seek treatment.
, http://www.100md.com
But signs of a biological attack may not be immediately evident. Disease incubation periods run from days to weeks, depending on the germ, and symptoms could appear influenza-like.
Americans would have to rely on healthcare providers to report such innocuous signs to public health officials. Public health officials would then attempt to identify the agent used in an attack and contain its spread.
But the cash-strapped state of the public health system, as well as financial pressures on healthcare providers and the medical system, make an effective response to a bioterrorism threat questionable at best, experts warn.
"Today, a major epidemic arising either from a natural emerging infection or an act of bioterrorism would pose serious challenges to the US public health system," Dr. Jonathan Tucker, director of the Monterey Institute of International Studies' Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program, told a congressional panel Wednesday., 百拇医药