Florida the only state prepared to handle bioterrorism

WASHINGTON -- The federal government has truckloads of medicine and vaccines ready to deploy should bioterrorism strike, but only one state is fully prepared to receive and distribute those treatments.

Federal officials say that while states have made considerable progress in preparing for bioterrorism, much work remains.

"Our biggest concern is we will get to a location and a state or a city will not be ready," said Jerry Hauer, assistant secretary for public health preparedness at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Even Florida, the one state deemed ready to receive the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile, still must conduct drills to make sure its plans will work.

Federal officials emphasize that states still could handle an emergency if they had to, even if they are not considered prepared. After the Sept. 11 attacks, when the stockpile was deployed for the first time, it took New York City officials "several valuable hours" figuring out where to send 50 tons of general medical supplies and how to secure them -- but eventually the medicine was delivered, said Steven Bice, who runs the program for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Friday was the deadline for states to report progress in preparing for bioterrorism. Key questions asked by HHS included how they will distribute medicine, where they can provide 500 hospital beds in case of mass casualties and how hospitals will isolate highly contagious patients.

Math vs. practicality

Many states admit they are far from ready.

In Kentucky, officials have not yet figured out who will deliver the shots or where to find the people to do it, said Dr. Steven Englender, the state epidemiologist. He said it could take 60,000 people at 250 clinics to vaccinate Kentucky's 4 million people over five days.

"That's the math. The practicality is something different," Englender said in an interview this week.

Hauer says that math could be conservative if there were an outbreak of smallpox -- a highly contagious, fatal disease.

"Five days might actually be a luxury," Hauer said.