Background References for Bioterrorism and Biosurveillance

Biosurveillance or 'Syndromic Surveillance' is the monitoring of a population for changes against a predetermined norm or standard.  A Harvard University study detailing the current ability of public health care systems to identify health care trends concluded that the systems are antiquated and slow.  It would be difficult to identify a silent bioterrorist attack and the associated health risks until well after the attack had taken place. 

Harvard’s Dr. Kenneth D. Mandl has estimated that a real-time biosurveillance system could assess the threat of smallpox five days earlier than current methods and reduce the fatalities by five orders of magnitude.  Biosurveillance in an anthrax attack would be two days quicker in identifying the problem and significantly reduce fatalities by a factor of seven.
       Source: Harvard Medical School: http://dsg.bwh.harvard.edu/courses/hst950/5.pdf

The first line of defense is rapid identification of the problem, which was underscored by the anthrax outbreaks in the fall of 2001.  Five people were killed in those attacks, and without quick identification the death toll could have been much higher. This rapid identification of the attack enabled a prompt medical response and limited the overall exposure.
       Source: Centers for Disease Control www.cdc.gov

Bioterrorism is the deliberate use of biological agents against civilian populations.  Those germs used in bioterrorism attacks are known as biological or bioterrorist agents.  Two examples of these agents include anthrax and smallpox, although there are a number of others.  The Centers for Disease Control has been preparing for bioterrorism since 1998, but until recently there were few incidences, especially in the United States, of a deliberate release of biological agents in order to cause major disease outbreaks.
       Source: U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services   www.hhs.gov  

Data Consolidation

The need for consolidated regional and national public safety data has been expressed repeatedly by government agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, and the Department of Health and Human Services, among others.  The National Association of State EMS Directors has called for Biosurveillance systems to be implemented throughout the healthcare and public safety systems.                                
       Source: National Association of State EMS Directors www.nasemsd.org

The Need Expressed

“. . .over 80% of U.S. cities believe their top priority is preparing for biological, chemical and cyber terrorism, and over 95% of major metropolitan areas believe the same.
      Source: National League of Cities   www.nlc.org

“Detection of acute or covert terrorist attacks requires effective linking of data from a variety of sources; and effective public health response will depend on the timeliness and quality of communication.”    
       Source:  Kansas City, MO Dept. of Health, BioTerrorism Manual Ch. 9, pg. 3

“Complete EMS data is missing at the regional and state level in over 90% of the states.  Data is an important component to a coordinated EMS response and surveillance system.”  
       Source:  National Association of State EMS Directors, Report on Domestic Terrorism www.nasemsd.org .