Cities prepare for bio attack


Finding the fastest way to distribute medicine is the focus of a national effort to ready at least one city in each state.


By DAVID HENCH Staff Writer

February 12, 2008

Doug Jones/Staff Photographer


Portland’s Cities Readiness Initiative chief, Michael Radke, says the city’s plan can be scaled down for a more common disease outbreak, like the mumps.Portland health officials have a plan to distribute life-saving medication within 48 hours to everyone who lives and works in the city, in preparation for a bio-terrorism attack that spreads deadly anthrax spores throughout Maine's largest city.

The Cities Readiness Initiative is being expanded to include South Portland and Biddeford, part of a metropolitan statistical area where there are 300,000 people at the height of a busy workday.

"It's really trying to lessen the impact a disease agent would have," said Michael Russell, program manager for epidemiology and emergency preparedness in the Portland Department of Human Services' public health division. "These agents don't really know any geographic boundaries."

Plans are in place in 36 of the country's major cities and are being developed in 36 more metropolitan areas to include at least one city in each state. Maine was awarded $200,000 from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop its plan, most of which was distributed to local agencies that were involved in the work.

The initiative was developed in case of a terrorist attack that uses germs as a weapon. Deadly incidents involving letters laced with anthrax bacteria right after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks raised fears about the country's ability to respond to a more widespread germ attack.

The Cities Readiness Initiative also reflects a growing awareness that a catastrophic medical emergency would overwhelm a city's medical facilities. Federal officials determined that getting medicine to large numbers of people quickly is easier with multiple distribution points staffed with a large number of volunteers.

The timetable of getting medicine to people within 48 hours is based on the time it takes for someone who inhales anthrax to start showing symptoms: difficulty breathing, followed eventually by shock and death.

"If you get inhaled anthrax, it is very easily treated if you start treating with antibiotics within 48 hours," said Michael Radke, coordinator of the Cities Readiness Initiative for Portland's public health division.

Portland has identified 14 points of delivery, facilities where medicine-dispensing stations could be set up and staffed quickly to handle as many as 500 people an hour. The locations are confidential because someone might try to interrupt the city's response in the event of an attack, Radke said.

In an emergency, the Strategic National Stockpile of medicine would ship prepackaged pallets of supplies to an affected area, which would distribute them through the points of delivery.

Portland has been developing its plan over the past year. Now, South Portland has identified likely points of distribution. Officials say some medicines would probably be issued to facilities like Southern Maine Community College and major employers, said Jeff Temple, South Portland's director of emergency management.

Biddeford's emergency management director, Deputy Fire Chief Marc Bellefeuille, said planning for rapid distribution of medicine is just getting under way in his city.

Within a year, the program is expected to be in place in Biddeford and South Portland. Within two years, it should cover all of the communities in southern Cumberland and northern York counties.

The state already has plans for getting medicines around Maine. The Portland-based program is designed to deal with large numbers in an urban setting.

The biggest challenge in developing the response program has been lining up the hundreds of trained volunteers who could be counted on to operate centers. Russell said Portland has 450 human services workers it can rely on, and has developed relationships with other organizations, such as the American Red Cross, that could be relied on in a catastrophe.

Portland officials say the city must prepare for a widespread attack -- like anthrax spread from a crop duster -- even if it's...


not likely. "It's much easier to scale down than scale up, so we need to plan for the worst," Radke said.

A more plausible situation would be a release of a biological weapon at a single location. In that case, the city would use broadcast, the Internet and other media to inform residents who may have been affected where they can go for treatment.

Although designed to respond to terrorism, elements of the planning can be used for other disease outbreaks, like meningitis or mumps, Radke said.

"These plans that we're creating can be scaled down to those kinds of community events that are not so uncommon," he said.

Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:

dhench@pressherald.com

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