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September 18, 2002

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"States Take On Bioterrorism"

Washington Technology (www.washingtontechnology.com/news/17

12/statelocal/18932-1.html) (09/09/02) Vol. 17, No. 12, P. 24; Welsh, William

Congress has approved the nationwide distribution of $918 million funneled through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to state and local governments for use in building infrastructures for bioterrorism preparedness.  Funding will support needs assessments and will be used to build and maintain pharmaceutical stockpiles and upgrade information technology. Ultimately, a national electronic public health information network will be constructed for the benefit of federal health officials to track and respond to infectious disease outbreaks and potential chemical, radiological, and biological attacks. This new plan supercedes the boundaries of the CDC's current three-year national electronic alert network project and will enable federal and state specialists to assist local agencies in treatment and law enforcement agencies in evidence handling. Using some of its $58 million share of the federal funding, Texas has already begun to put into place a network system linking 64 statewide health organizations to local health agencies, hospitals, fire, police, and other emergency agencies.  Avnet Enterprise Solutions of Phoenix, Ariz., Cisco Systems of San Jose, Calif., and Texas-based Dell Computer have been contracted to build the Texas Health Alert Network, which will ultimately reach 90 percent of the state's population.

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