Posted on: Thursday, August 22, 2002

Health Department adding workers to focus on bioterrorism

By Shayna Coleon
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Department of Health has hired 17 people and plans to hire 18 more as part the state's plans to prepare for any bioterrorism attack, officials said yesterday.

The 35 will assess and work on the state's Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program which received a $9 million federal grant from the U. S. Centers for Disease Control.

The new hires are part of the department's proposed organizational changes as a result of an expanded bioterrorism preparedness program. They applied for the positions to assess and improve Hawai'i's capacity to respond to bioterrorism, outbreaks of infectious diseases and other public health threats and emergencies, said state epidemiologist Paul Effler, coordinator of the department's bioterrorism program.

The other positions should be filled in the next couple of months, Effler said.

Health and hospital officials yesterday discussed the progress of their efforts to prepare for bioterrorism attacks since the state received the $9 million three months ago. Bruce Anderson, director of the state Department of Health, said the department has made a tremendous effort in improving its preparedness and response program.

The program was created in 1999 with a $600,000 grant from the U.S Centers for Disease Control, but since the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax scares, the Health Department has been identifying "a lot of gaps in the system that we've been trying to fill," Anderson said.

Effler said the Health Department has to think about all possible situations that could occur in a bioterrorist attack. "Our goal here is to create a system that improves the overall infrastructure," Effler said. "Not a Band-Aid for every specific event as it arises, but the capacity to respond to things you can't predict."

The bioterrorism preparedness program will focus on six areas: assessment and planning, surveillance and epidemiology capacity, laboratory capacity, communications and information technology, public information and risk communication and education and training of health professionals and emergency personnel, Effler said.

Part of the $9 million grant was also designated to community agencies such as the Red Cross and the University of Hawai'i because the program will need to work with numerous agencies in the state if an attack occurred, Effler said.

"The response to a (bioterrorist) event would involve so many different agencies, and we really need to be well coordinated to be effective," Effler said. "The Red Cross, police, fire, Civil Defense, and potentially the military would be involved and we need a plan in place so we can speak the same language."

To prepare the healthcare facilities, an assessment of all the state's hospitals and how the hospitals will handle bioterrorism attacks are also being done by the Healthcare Association of Hawaii as part of its Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Project, said Project Manager Toby Clairmont.

The program will not be finished in the near future, but Anderson said the state will be able to handle a bioterrorism attack if it occurred now.

"It's an evolving process," Anderson said. "With the new $9 million grant, we'll see a giant leap forward ... but it's not something you can do overnight or quickly."