Public health system ready or not?(News and Trends)(Brief Article)

Security Management, October, 2003 by Gips, Michael A.

Bad news continues to flow out of government and industry groups assessing the U.S. public health system's readiness for a terrorist attack The latest to add their concerns are the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) and the General Accounting office (GA0)I in its report, the APHL warns that environmental testing methods for chemical weapons haven't yet been developed. In addition. "chronic shortages of skilled laboratory workers severely hamper readiness efforts," and lab workers who are on the job risk their safety when dealing with samples. On the hospital front, the GAO reports that urban hospitals lack the medical equipment, such as ventilators, to handle the number of patients that would likely ensue from a bioterrorism incident. While 80 percent of...

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