Infectious diseasePreoccupation with bioterrorism hobbles preparations for natural spread of deadly viruses
Preoccupation with hypothetical bioterrorism attacks is leaving America more vulnerable to the threat of natural spread of deadly viruses. Since the 9/11 attacks, the federal government has poured billions of dollars to prevent and monitor threats of bioterrorism, yet the United States was ill-prepared for the swine flu outbreak of 2009. Experts say it is time to rebalance public health priorities so that preparations for the real threat of the outbreak of infectious diseases will not take a back seat to preparations for the more remote threat of bioterrorism.
Preoccupation with hypothetical bioterrorism attacks is leaving America more vulnerable to the threat of natural spread of deadly viruses. Avian flu recently resurfaced in Australia and China. More than 100 cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) have been reported in Saudi Arabia. Since the 9/11 attacks, the federal government has poured billions of dollars to prevent and monitor threats of bioterrorism, yet the United States was ill-prepared for the swine flu outbreak of 2009.
The larger emphasis on bioterroism, rather than on natural virus outbreaks, islegitimate considering the global terrorism threat, and it is also in keeping with the traditional America approach.of putting the military in charge of fighting epidemics.
Philly.com reports that sociologist Allan McCoy notes that even before the 9/11 attacks, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) took interest in biological terror, and produced numerous reports, including the 1998 “Bioterorrism as a Public Health Threat.” Post 9/11 and the anthrax letters targeted at U.S senators and media figures, consultants for the CDC proposed the “Model State Emergency Health Powers Act,” advocating legalization requiring compulsory quarantine of the sick in the case of a bioterror attack.
The 2009 swine flu outbreak exposed the inadequacy of the nation’s preparedness for widespread natural virus threats. Swine flu vaccine stockpiles were insufficient to cover high-risk populations. The CDC reported it needed 159 million doses of vaccine to inoculate pregnant women, health-care professionals, and other key groups, but only thirty-two million doses were produced.
Funding for research on actively infectious and deadly diseases — including malaria and tuberculosis — has been redirected to research on less widespread viruses such as anthrax and tularemia, because the latter appear on the government’s list of potential bioterrorist agents.
The CDC has begun to prepare for the potential spread of MERS in the United States, but the risk is considered low. “We know that the experience in Europe says the risk is not zero,” Dr. Mark Pallansch, director of the CDC’s division of viral diseases, told FoxNews. “They’ve had at least four events of importing the virus in a traveler from (the Middle East). Since their travel volume is much higher with that region than ours, that would make sense in terms of us not having had a case, but still tells us the risk is not zero.”
The CDC has begun to equip hospitals with diagnostic kits to help detect and report instances of MERS. “At the moment, we’re not monitoring travelers, but we are encouraging physicians who have sick patients to ask about a travel history, specifically to the four countries affected so far in the Middle East,” Pallansch said.
Experts say that military and public health concerns can complement each other, but the preoccupation with bioterorrism has made the United States less attentive to natural virus outbreaks. These experts say it is time to rebalance public health priorities so that preparations for the real threat of the outbreak of infectious diseases will not take a back seat to preparations for the more remote threat of bioterrorism.
— Read more in D. A. Henderson, “Bioterrorism as a Public Health Threat,” Emerging Infectious Diseases 4, no. 3 (July-September 1998)
