How America is prepared to dealing with acts of bioterror and infectious pandemic outbreaks
Bioterrorism can be defined as the intentional use of microorganisms or toxins derived from living organisms to produce death or disease in humans, animals or plants. Bioterrorismis known to be used by terrorists because it has the capability of causing maximum number of casualties, it often disrupts civil order and infrastructure. Additionally it is perceived to overwhelm governments and its emergency response system. Terrorist often use if to create panic confusion and fear. Infectious pandemic have also been occurring in the world and causing pressure in governments attempt to mitigate them. Now how is US prepared to deal with bio terrorism and infectious pandemic outbreaks. This essay aims to highlight America preparedness to bioterror attacks and infectious pandemic outbreaks.
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America has made effort to come up with legislation on bioterrorism. For instance there is the chemical and biological weapons control act, the antiterrorism and effective death penalty act and the Defense against weapons of mass destruction Act. The government have also improved public health infrastructure to help it responding to infectious outbreaks and bioterror attacks. The public health infrastructure involves health departments, health facilities, health care providers, public and private laboratories, data and communication programs (Garfield, 2005).
In its ways to prepare for such attacks and outbreaks, US have engaged in improving diagnosis of diseases by intensively educating health care providers on bioterrorism cases and incidences of pandemic outbreaks. The government is also investing in having improved laboratories to help improve their capabilities. Nowadays health departments are working hard to have enhanced surveillance to detect outbreaks as soon as they occur.
The health department is seen to be working closely with the intelligence and other federal security bodies to conduct biological research. Pharmaceutical and food safety assurance is also examined with great care.Lastly, the government have started training programs, improved on surveillance and warning detection systems (Garfield, 2005). However, there is a major drawback in the preparedness efforts as the health department lacks enough resources to do research, improve facilities and enhance surveillance. The budget provision is not adequate to ensure there is better preparedness. Additionally there is lack of qualified public health workforce who can deal with bioterror attack.
Probable threats of bio-terror and infectious pandemic outbreaks and means through which attacks may be carried and how they can be mitigated
The US is vulnerable to bioterror as militants in foreign countries are using biological weapons development programs and are now in possession of biological agents and can utilize them to launch high profile terrorist attacks. Bioterror attacks can occur as dissemination of aerosized anthrax spores, food contamination. Some popular bioterror attacks recorded include the Sarin gas attack in japan, the military bioweapons programs in Iraq and Russia.
Infectious pandemic outbreaks often spread through human populations and can cause massive deaths if not attended efficiently. An outbreak is a sudden increase of number of cases of a particular disease. Bioterrorism can cause infectious pandemic when biological agents used are of an infectious disease. Some common diseases that can attack a population include yellow fever, Ebola, typhoid fever and influenza (Shah, 2017).
The best way to mitigate these risks is by education and training. These can include health care providers, public, teachers and parents especially for infectious outbreaks. Bioterror attack can be avoided when there is improved intelligence and surveillance. The information gathered by federal intelligence and other security structures can be shared with heath department to help improve detection of attack and how it can be attended to medically. The government can help reduce risks of bioterror and infectious pandemic outbreak by improving on health department capability; improved facilities, more funding to health department and establishing modern laboratories. Integration of health operation with IT would help improve detection of attacks and infectious outbreaks. Having improved response means and adequate emergency facilities would serve to eliminate these threats.
References
Garfield R., (2005) State Of Preparedness For Bioterrorism And Public Health Emergencies. Commonwealth Fund. Retrieved from http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/files/publications/issue-brief/2005/jul/state-preparedness-for-bioterrorism-and-public-health-emergencies/829_garfield_bioterrorism-pdf.pdf .
Shah S., (2017). Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, From Cholera To Ebola And Beyond. The Economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21692843- mankind-knows-lot-about-diseases-and-how-they-spread-it-still-has-lot.
