Defense launches plan to fight bioterrorist attacks

The Defense Department is launching a national strategy to defend against biological attacks and is testing a wide range of technologies in Washington and Albuquerque, N.M., to spot biological attacks before they become outbreaks, according to officials at the Pentagon and in the two cities. Defense's new initiative combines the efforts of two current biodefense programs. The first, run by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), will deploy air-monitoring equipment in Albuquerque this fall. The purpose of the test, which will last about a year, is to determine how well biological monitoring equipment could be used in an urban environment, said Angel Martinez of Albuquerque's Environmental Health Department. The detection equipment will collect particles from the air, then test them for biological agents at the nearby Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories, Martinez said. He added that Albuquerque was chosen as one of the two test cities because of its proximity to the labs, and because it already has an extensive air quality monitoring system in place to comply with federal clean air laws. A DTRA statement said the monitoring systems would also be placed in the Albuquerque International Airport. The second part of Defense's new biodefense plan will establish a similar network of air monitors at undisclosed locations in the Washington metropolitan area, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman. The Defense Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense will manage that effort, which should begin by the fall or winter. Both programs will make use of a technique known as syndromic surveillance. The technique involves monitoring symptom reports from hospitals and doctors' offices, as well as sales of pharmaceuticals, to provide early warning of the outbreak of disease. For example, if several patients reported to a local hospital complaining of the same symptoms, and it was discovered that they all work in the same office building, public health officials might have enough suspicion to test for specific diseases. Likewise, if pharmacies were selling unusually high amounts of a particular antibiotic, officials could reasonably suspect that some kind of infection was spreading throughout the population. They could then move to counteract it. Several city and county health departments across the country, including Los Angeles County, New York, Denver and Boston are developing their own syndromic surveillance systems, which store and report data electronically. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has used one such system, known as the Lightweight Epidemiological Advanced Detection and Emergency System (LEADERS) to monitor health conditions during various high-profile public events, including the 2001 World Series in Arizona and the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. CDC also used LEADERS to monitor health problems and detect diseases in Manhattan after the Sept. 11 attacks. The Air Force Medical Service is adapting LEADERS for military use, but the Pentagon hasn't indicated that the system would be part of the new Defense initiative in Washington or Albuquerque. The Air Force will also establish a biological warfare analysis center at Fort Detrick, Md., where the Army's Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases is located. The federal government has increased its efforts to improve technology to detect biological pathogens after last October's anthrax attacks, which killed five people, including two Postal Service employees. But biological agents are much harder to detect than chemical agents, which have also been used as weapons. In 1995, terrorists released sarin nerve gas in three Tokyo subway lines during the morning rush hour, killing 11 people and injuring more than 5,000. The city of Washington is currently deploying chemical sensors in its subway system. Transit agency officials are working with the Energy Department, the National Institute of Justice in the Justice Department and the Federal Transit Administration and have installed sensors in at least two subway stations. Energy and subway officials plan to outfit 12 more stations within a year. The team from the Energy Department is also installing chemical sensors at the San Francisco International Airport. A Pentagon spokeswoman said Defense officials expect the new biodefense program to eventually be moved into the proposed, new Homeland Security Department.