Governments, hospitals, researchers not ready for next bioterrorist act.(Brief Article)

2002 APR 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- If a U.S. city suffered a biological attack today, health officials would scramble for expertise from medical experts who wouldn't know where to offer it, a panel studying the issue said.

And that could mean more lives lost in future attacks that U.S. officials say are inevitable.

"This is an organizational challenge as much as anything else," said Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon democrat and chairman of the subcommittee on science, technology and space.

"Merely having assets does not make them useful," Richard Hatchett, coordinator for the Civilian Medical Reserve Working Group, told the subcommittee. "Assets become valuable when they are organized."

The search for a nexus of medical, technical and academic expertise began after the September 11 attacks and the anthrax attacks that followed shortly thereafter. Government officials groped for medical experts and were unsure how to size them up. Medical and academic experts, in turn, were unsure where to offer help.

"When a disaster happens, that is not the time to be scrambling to try to find experts," said Maryland health chief Georges Benjamin, who oversaw his state's efforts to test postal buildings and residents who might have been exposed to anthrax.

He said he had trouble finding people who had studied anthrax and knew how to treat it.