Posted on: Friday, April 15, 2005

Kaua'i exercise targets bioterrorism

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau

LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Frightened victims were treading water while clutching aircraft seat cushions, young people were hosed down in specialized decontamination showers, and hundreds of cars lined up to pick up emergency medication against a potential fatal disease — but no one was really hurt.

Residents faced a plague of bogus disasters this week as emergency crews from across the state and parts of the Mainland trained on Kaua'i for a series of disturbingly realistic bioterrorism events.

"9/11 has changed a lot of things," said Dr. Chiyome Fukino, the state's health director.

The bioterrorism training was designed to ensure that emergency-response agencies will be able to react effectively in case of the real thing. The crews dealt with a bunch of them, including a shot-down airliner, a terrorist weapons factory, an outbreak of a terrorist-generated disease, clusters of injuries and chemical contamination.

Fukino was on the island to view the Health Department's involvement in a fake outbreak of the fast-spreading and sometimes fatal bacterial disease tularemia or rabbit fever. Tularemia is viewed by the federal agencies as a potential terrorism agent if distributed as an aerosol. "This was to test our ability to distribute preventive medicines," Fukino said.

The department had to mobilize quickly and develop a way to provide mass quantities of antibiotics to the public. Working overnight, they set up tents and traffic cones in the parking lot at Vidinha Stadium. They collected simulated medicines from a national stockpile, established security protocols and prepared for a deluge of clients.

Kaua'i residents were urged by radio and newspaper to participate and hundreds did, driving their cars yesterday morning to the stadium where they volunteered to be quizzed on medical issues by Health Department workers who issued empty containers simulating antibiotic prescriptions.

Health Department teams had hoped that the average resident's transit time would be just 10 to 15 minutes, but for some, it took 30 to 40 minutes. In a real event, those delays could have been dramatically magnified.

Kaua'i Civil Defense coordinator Mark Marshall said pinpointing problems is the purpose of the week's testing, which was financed in large part by the U.S. Department of Homeland Defense's Office of Domestic Preparedness.

Participants included federal, state and county agencies, Wilcox Hospital, the American Red Cross, ROTC students from Waimea High School, and the Marriott and Radisson hotels.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.