Ventura County Not Prepared for Bioterrorist Attack, Plan Finds

Ventura County lacks the stockpile of vaccines and antibiotics and the ability to detect the spread of disease required to address a large-scale bioterrorist attack, according to the county Bioterrorism Preparedness Work Plan, the Ventura County Star reports. According to the plan, which county supervisors considered yesterday, the county should:

Address communication problems, such as language barriers and the failure to report diseases, between physicians, hospitals and the public.
Develop a plan to store and distribute the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile;
Improve laboratories to reduce the time required for test results and to protect samples from contamination;
Revise laws to provide health officials with more authority in the event of a bioterrorist attack; and
Increase the number of mental health counselors available to help the Red Cross in the event of a bioterrorist attack.

In June, the county Public Health Department received $200,169 in federal funds to develop a bioterrorism response plan. The county must submit the plan to the Department of Health Services to receive an additional $748,905. However, Robert Levin, the county medical officer, said that the funds will not cover the cost of "everything that needs to be done" to prepare the county for a bioterrorist attack. "This will take a couple, three years to accomplish. And we don't know how many years the money will be available," Levin said (Levin, Ventura County Star, 10/13). This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.