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Wednesday October 3 3:08 PM ET

U.S. Steps Up Germ Defense, Speeds Smallpox Vaccine

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By Joanne Kenen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Tommy Thompson on Wednesday outlined steps the government is taking to strengthen bioterror defenses, including speeding up development of a new smallpox vaccine that should be ready for emergency use next year.

Appearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Thompson said federal health officials responded swiftly to the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington and he was confident they could respond quickly to other emergencies where germ warfare could be a threat.

But he acknowledged more needed to be done to shore up the public health system, expand surveillance of potential epidemics or food contaminants, and train local doctors, nurses and emergency medical technicians across the country to recognize such diseases as smallpox, anthrax and plague.

``Let me characterize our status this way. We are prepared to respond. But there is more we can do -- and must do -- to strengthen our response,'' Thompson said.

A biological attack could be stealthy, without the hijackings and explosions that characterized the attacks on the Pentagon (news - web sites) and the World Trade Center. Medical workers and epidemiologists would have to detect it quickly to minimize the loss of life, he said.

Early symptoms of anthrax, for instance, are quite similar to an ordinary cold or flu -- except that it is fatal if not treated in the first 24 hours.

Some local officials who have participated in simulation exercises and training sessions sounded more worried than Thompson. Dr. Stephen Cantrill, an emergency medical expert in Denver, took part in one simulation last year that had thousands of fatalities and tens of thousands of ill patients.

Hospitals, he told the committee, ``could not adjust to a sudden increase in patient load without degenerating into chaos.'' He said a smallpox outbreak could make the infamous 1918 flu pandemic, which killed more than half a million people in the United States alone, ``look like a walk in the park.''

Thompson said the government does not plan on launching a campaign to vaccinate everyone against smallpox as vaccines have side effects and there is no sign of an immediate threat of a smallpox attack. But by having a larger and better stockpile of vaccine, people in an affected region could be vaccinated swiftly if an outbreak did occur.

VACCINES TO BE AVAILABLE NEXT YEAR

Originally, the government hoped to have the new vaccine, based on recombinant DNA techniques, available by 2004 or 2005. But Thompson said 40 million doses would be available by mid to late 2002.

An aide to Thompson later told reporters the vaccine would be produced by Acambis Plc, a British company with a facility in the Boston area. The government in September had already announced a $343 million contract to begin testing the new vaccine, but legislation pending in the Senate would provide about another $60 million to accelerate the program.

Two different bipartisan teams of senators have introduced legislation calling for an additional $1.4 billion to $1.6 billion to protect the United States from germ warfare. Thompson said he too had submitted a budget request to the Bush administration for emergency funding, which he said was in a range similar to the two Senate bills.

Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Sen. Robert Byrd (news - bio - voting record), a West Virginia Democrat, said he was eager to come up with the additional money but he and other senators also expressed some frustration with Thompson's confident expressions about the ability to respond to an attack.

``I just don't believe that,'' Byrd said.

Thompson said people should be ``very vigilant,'' going to a doctor if they have unusual symptoms such as rashes or coughing. But he said people shouldn't be trying to get vaccines or gas masks.

``People, Americans, should not be scared into believing they need gas masks and people should not be frightened into hoarding medicine and food. There is nothing we know of to warrant such actions,'' he said.

Several senators spoke of the need to address the issue of the 7,000 former Soviet scientists who had been engaged in developing biological weapons during the Cold War. The U.S. government already has a program to redirect former enemy nuclear scientists and several senators said a similar program might be wise for germ warfare.

``The expertise (to make biological weapons) is out there,'' said Sen. Bill Frist (news - bio - voting record), a Tennessee Republican and co-sponsor with Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy of one of the bioterror preparedness bills. ``It's probably out there to the highest bidder.''

ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.