Date: Dec. 1, 1998
Contacts: Dan Quinn, Media Relations Officer
Dumi Ndlovu, Media Relations Assistant
(202) 334-2138; e-mail <news@nas.edu>
[ EMBARGOED: NOT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE BEFORE 5 P.M. EST TUESDAY, DEC. 1 ]
Publication Announcement
New Drugs, Diagnostic Tests, and Software Needed to
Prepare U.S. Cities for Chemical, Biological Terrorist Attacks
WASHINGTON -- Improving the ability of the nation's civilian medical community to respond to a chemical or biological terrorist attack requires more than simply providing cities with military training and equipment, according to a new report from a committee of the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council. The committee identified more than 60 research and development projects as potentially useful in minimizing the damage caused by a terrorist attack, including new drugs and vaccines to combat anthrax and smallpox, faster and easier-to-use chemical detectors and diagnostic tests, and communications software to improve disease surveillance and to provide information about possible attacks.
"Although preparing for and responding to terrorism is a daunting challenge, it is not an insurmountable one," said committee chair Peter Rosen, director of the emergency medical residency program at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. "By bolstering existing medical resources, improving communications, and developing better ways to monitor and detect threats, we can minimize the damage that a terrorist attack in the United States could cause."
Preparations for biological or chemical terrorism should build on systems already in place to handle hazardous materials spills, infectious disease outbreaks, and natural disasters, the report says. Because of their work in these areas, public health departments, poison control centers, and metropolitan police officials are best equipped to handle the challenges posed by terrorism. These entities must adapt new and emerging technologies for detecting chemical and biological warfare agents. They especially need faster, simpler, cheaper, and more accurate tools for detecting and identifying a wide spectrum of toxic substances that could be used in an attack.
Knowing who is going to attack, or when and where an attack might take place, is particularly difficult in a civilian setting, the report says. Military officials, for example, may know or suspect that an enemy has a stockpile of biological weapons and could vaccinate soldiers against some of these agents. But in the civilian environment, the enemy, weapon, and time and place of attack are unknown, making this sort of preparation impossible.
Nevertheless, high priority should be placed on preparing for certain types of attacks, the report says. Operations-related research is needed to advise federal authorities on how and where to stockpile antidotes to nerve agents, and on an effective system for distributing them. A vigorous national effort should be mounted to develop, manufacture, and stockpile improved vaccines for anthrax and smallpox, the committee recommended. And an aggressive program should be developed to locate substances to repair or limit the damage caused by vesicants such as mustard gas, which burn and blister body tissues through contact with the skin and lungs.
Other recommendations include:
> Improvements in the laboratory and epidemiology capabilities of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as at the state and local level
> Research into methods for quickly evaluating medical conditions of victims of chemical agents, and rapid, effective, and inexpensive decontamination of large groups of people and equipment
> Development of educational materials on chemical and biological agents for both the general public and mental health professionals.
> Improvement and field testing of computer models to predict the spread of hazardous agents in an attack and to provide realistic training for emergency management officials.
Recent events suggest that terrorists in the United States and abroad may be more interested in using biological and chemical weapons than in the past, the report says. The 1995 nerve gas attack in the Tokyo subway by the religious cult Aum Shinrikyo, and the arrests of U.S. citizens for obtaining biological agents that could have been used in an attack have heightened public awareness of the threat.
A committee roster follows. The study was funded by the Office of Emergency Preparedness of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Institute of Medicine is a private, non-profit organization that provides health policy advice under a congressional charter. The National Research Council -- the principal operating arm of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering -- provides science and technology advice under the same charter.
Read the full text of Chemical and Biological Terrorism: Research and Development to Improve Civilian Medical Responsefor free on the Web, as well as more than 1,800 other publications from the National Academies. Printed copies are available for purchase from the National Academy Press Web siteor at the mailing address in the letterhead; tel. (202) 334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242. Reporters may obtain a pre-publication copy from the Office of News and Public Information at the letterhead address (contacts listed above).
INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE
Division of Health Sciences Policy
and
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology
Committee on R&D Needs for Improving Civilian Medical Response
to Chemical and Biological Terrorism Incidence
Peter Rosen, M.D.(1)(chair)
Director, Emergency Medicine Residency Program
School of Medicine
University of California, San Diego
Leo G. Abood, Ph.D. (†)
Professor of Pharmacology
Department of Pharmacology and Physiology
University of Rochester Medical Center
Rochester, N.Y.
Georges C. Benjamin, M.D.
Deputy Secretary, Public Health Services
Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Baltimore
Rosemarie Bowler, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor and Fieldwork Coordinator
Department of Psychology
San Francisco State University
San Francisco
Jeffrey I. Daniels, D.Env.
Leader, Risk Sciences Group
Health and Ecological Assessment Division
Earth and Environmental Sciences Directorate
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Livermore, Calif.
Craig A. DeAtley, B.S., P.A.
Associate Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine
and Health Care Sciences Program
George Washington University
Washington, D.C.
Lewis R. Goldfrank, M.D.(1)
Director, Emergency Medicine
New York University School of Medicine
and Bellevue Hospital Center
New York City
Jerome M. Hauer, M.H.S.
Director, Office of Emergency Management
City of New York
Karen I. Larson, Ph.D.
Toxicologist, Office of Toxic Substances
Washington Department of Health
Olympia
Matthew S. Meselson, Ph.D.(1,2)
Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass.
David H. Moore, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Director, Medical Toxicology Programs
Battelle Edgewood Operations
Bel Air, Md.
Dennis M. Perrotta, Ph.D.
Chief, Bureau of Epidemiology
Texas Department of Health, Austin
Linda S. Powers, Ph.D.
Professor of Electrical and Biological Engineering, and
Director, National Center for the Design of Molecular Function
Utah State University, Logan
Philip K. Russell, M.D.
Professor of International Health
School of Hygiene and Public Health
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore
Jerome S. Schultz, Ph.D.(3)
Director, Center for Biotechnology and Bioengineering
University of Pittsburgh
Robert E. Shope, M.D.
Professor of Pathology
University of Texas Medical Branch
Galveston
Robert S. Tharratt, M.D.
Associate Professor of Medicine, and
Chief, Section of Clinical Pharmacology and Medical Toxicology
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
University of California, Davis Medical Center
Sacramento
INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE STAFF
Frederick J. Manning, Ph.D.
Project Director
(1)Member, Institute of Medicine
(2)Member, National Academy of Sciences
(3)Member, National Academy of Engineering
(†)Deceased |
