Exercise prepares agencies for bioterrorism

As part of September’s National Preparedness Month, the Department of Health and Senior Services is holding a tabletop exercise in bioterrorism to teach local agencies and law enforcement how to handle an attack or large-scale disaster.

The exercise, 11 a.m.-noon Thursday at the Library Center, 4653 S. Campbell, takes participants through a scenario that begins with a few citizen reports of an intestinal illness and quickly turns into a regional outbreak of disease from food contamination by terrorists.

Plans for responding to a widespread communicable disease or bioterrorist attack will be discussed. The exercise will test the community’s ability to collaborate among different agencies, conduct quick investigations and command an out-of-control situation.

Members of local public health agencies, hospitals, law enforcement, emergency management offices and the state health department are invited to attend.

In addition to Homeland Security’s Chapman, the event will be overseen by Burce Clements, director of the Department of Health and Senior Services Center for Emergency Response and Terrorism and Kevin Gipson, director of the Springfield-Greene County Public Health department.