In the 10 years since those horrific events, overall preparedness has improved in many ways, but some specific improvements critical to mitigating a chemical or biological attack are still in the works.
General surveillance has increased with a multitude of surveillance and monitoring systems in place and the general public has become more aware of what might look like suspicious activity and what to do about it. More specifically, medical personnel have been trained on how to recognize these types of attacks and hospitals are much better prepared for such an emergency than they were 10 years ago, according to Robert Emery, vice president for safety, health, environment and risk management at the University of Texas Health Science Center, and associate professor of occupational health at the University of Texas School of Public Health.
“We’re never going to be 100 percent ironclad, but to date we’ve achieved a reasonable balance,” Emery said of the multiple layers of awareness and detection that have developed since 9/11.
“You’ve got increased training and surveillance. Law enforcement across the country has been trained on the signs and symptoms of a release or an attack,” Emery said. “There’s been a lot of training of clinicians, nurses and doctors to be able to identify the signs and symptoms.”
And, he said, there are elaborate monitoring systems in place, such as the BioWatch system, created in 2001 in response to the attacks. BioWatch is run by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and operates in several cities, including New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston, San Diego, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, Los Angeles and others.
But the shortcoming of current systems such as BioWatch is that samples have to be collected and there’s a 24-hour process to identify the agent.
“There is still work to be done on more direct reading instrumentation, Emery said. “Not just for anthrax but agents classified as potential weapons of mass destruction whether it be tularemia (an infectious disease most often spread by ticks and deer flies but is easy to aerosolize) or anthrax or whatever, it would be very useful to have devices that can read out either directly or very rapidly to detect the presence of those agents.”
Education Continues
All accredited hospitals are required to have emergency plans but have also learned from recent flu epidemics and pandemics, Emery said. “It’s caused the hospitals to understand how to put access controls in place and screen individuals prior to entry to the hospital. They’re much better prepared than 10 years ago.”
Emery said it’s imperative to continue to educate the public and social media can be a part of that education process. “We have to work hard to educate our community and say, ‘Look, if you hear something or you’re concerned about something make sure you let us know because we may not have known about it, but understand you’re not going to get an answer instantaneously.’”
Emery said it will take a little time to organize staff and assess the threat.
“The concern I have is the people with information will think a decision will occur instantly and that’s not the case.”
