$2.4 milliion to fund hospitals? bioterrorism preparedness

Sen. Kit Bond announced March 25 that Missouri hospitals will receive $2.4 million from the federal government to boost defenses against bioterrorism.

The funds will be disbursed to the State of Missouri from the U.S. Depart-ment of Health and Human Services, according to a release from Bond's office.

This money represents Missouri's share of the $125 million to be spent nationwide to increase local detection and prevention against biological attacks similar to the anthrax-tainted letters mailed to Washington, D.C. last fall.

"Local hospitals and clinics are the first line of defense against terrorists who use biological weapons," Bond said. "This money will help us boost our defenses right here at home."

The Bioterrorism Hospital Prepared-ness Program funds will be directed to hospitals so that they may improve their plans and facilities to respond to any potential bioterrorism attack or disease outbreak

Missouri has been approved for Phase I disbursement of funds totaling $483,524. After the state submits its plans for Phase II, the additional $1,934,094 will be disbursed as early as May 15.

In one recent survey of rural and urban emergency departments in the middle Atlantic area, none of the respondents believed that their hospitals were adequately prepared for biological weapons incidents.

None of the rural sites, and only half of the urban sites, had decontamination stations that could accommodate 10 to 15 casualties at a time. Although 87 percent of the hospitals could handle 10 to 50 uncontaminated casualties at once, only 10 percent could manage 50 to 100 mass casualty patients.

This funding will help address the universal need for training in handling casualties of weapons of mass destruction.

Only 10 percent of surveyed hospitals conducted chemical disaster drills, only 3 percent conducted biological drills.

Only 4 percent of the respondents were prepared, or even knew about, the potential for secondary terrorist attacks on health care workers.