Hospitals Seen as Unready for Bioterrorism

Doctors, not the military or police, will have to protect the public after a bioterrorist attack, but not one hospital in the nation is prepared, an expert warned Thursday.

Anthrax bacteria released in a small shopping mall could cause a crisis requiring 2,600 intensive-care beds, a number “not available anywhere in the country,” said Dr. Michael Osterholm, who runs the Infection Control Advisory Network and frequently advises the government on public health issues.

The government has only a few million doses of smallpox vaccine and at best enough antibiotics stockpiled for 5 million anthrax treatments, Osterholm said at an American Medical Assn. briefing.

Worse, he said, if doctors detected a contagious outbreak, such as smallpox, in most states they don’t have the authority to quarantine a patient without a court order.

Public health experts have warned for several years that bioterrorism, the release of deadly bacteria or viruses, is a growing threat.

The Department of Health and Human Services is spending $278 million this fiscal year to prepare for bioterrorism. “We’re much better prepared than we were a few years ago,” said HHS spokesman Damon Thompson.