White House Issues First-Ever Biosurveillance Strategy
By Charlene Porter
Staff Writer
White House - Working to better protect the public - domestically and
internationally - from biological threats affecting human, animal or plant
health, the Obama administration released its National Strategy for
Biosurveillance July 31.
While the nation has been on alert for chemical, biological, radiological
and nuclear (CBRN) threats since the 2001 terrorist attacks, this strategy aims
to extend that surveillance to include emerging infectious diseases, possible
pandemics, agricultural threats and food-borne illnesses. A summary of the
strategy released by the White House says the plan will "enhance all-hazards
incident management ... whether an incident is deliberate, accidental or
naturally occurring."
The strategy was released with a statement from President Obama. The
strategy's "goal is to provide the critical information and ongoing situational
awareness that enables better decisionmaking at all levels," he said.
Biological threats have caused a number of serious incidents in the United
States over the last decade or so, involving alarm, illness outbreaks, and even
death. A notorious case of anthrax spores maliciously sent through the mails to
various recipients in 2001 killed five people and sickened 17, and remains "the
worst biological attacks in U.S. history," according to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
Law enforcement agencies spent years investigating that deliberate act of
biological terrorism before a culprit was identified.
Sometimes naturally occurring perpetrators are the culprits, along with
lapses in proper food-handling procedures. Cases of tainted spinach, hamburger
or cantaloupe have been known to cause illness in dozens, even hundreds of
people around the country. Such outbreaks cause significant consumer fear about
what's in the refrigerator, but also serious economic losses across whole states
or regions as consumers, supermarkets and grocers dispose of heaps of foodstuffs
rather than risk consumption or spread of a disease-causing pathogen.
The new surveillance strategy aims to "enhance the nation's ability to
detect, track, investigate, and navigate incidents" affecting health, the
document says, to better protect the safety and well-being of the nation.
In the last week of July alone, four food-borne illness outbreaks occurred
around the country, the largest involving 76 people in 22 states with one death,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The strategy must maintain a global health perspective, the document says,
noting recent cases of rapidly traveling pathogens, which have underscored
diseases' disregard for international borders. Citing "our shared participation
in global health security," the strategy says, "we should reinforce
international connections with our national enterprise as the global
biosurveillance network continues to grow."
Identifying biosurveillance as "a top national security priority," the
strategy's intent is to save lives "by providing essential information for
better decisionmaking at all levels."
The strategy document proposes a number of steps to strengthen
biosurveillance - for example, the inclusion of social media in public awareness
campaigns as a way to empower communities with early warnings of threats locally
or globally.
The identification of new scientific and technological methods for
improving biosurveillance activities is also proposed, suggesting a means of
"forecasting likely CBRN incidents, food-borne illness, environmental disasters
and outbreak trajectories in the absence of definitive data." By following
trails laid in economic and weather forecasting, the strategy says, "there are
innovative ways to combine information and known facts to project what is likely
to transpire."
An implementation plan for a better-integrated biosurveillance strategy
will be developed over the next few months.
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs,
U.S. Department of State.)
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