State House News Service 

September 21, 1999--The state Department of Public Health has won a $4 million federal grant to establish a new system to fight terrorists who kill and maim with diseases like the plague, anthrax or smallpox instead of bombs and guns. 

The three-year grant also awarded to several states by the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention is part of a national effort to prepare for unconventional terrorist attacks.  DPH will use the money to create an Internet-based communications system to help hospital, local, state and federal officials share information, and beef up the emergency team that investigates suspicious disease outbreaks. 

While the likelihood of an attack like the fatal 1995 sarin nerve gas poisonings on a Tokyo subway is low, the state must be prepared, said Ralph Timperi, director of the state Department of Public Health's Jamaica Plain laboratory.  Timperi helped write the state's grant application and is a member of the current state emergency response team. 

"We can't prevent a single case, but what we can do is have a system that responds rapidly and allows us to prevent the spread of a disease to thousands of people," Timperi said. "What's going to provide a sense of well-being is our ability to respond quickly, like the fire department." 

"The terrorist events that have occurred in this country - the ones that have had a serious impact - have been bombings.  But certainly terrorists and rogue nations have access to chemical and biological weapons that could be used in an attack," Timperi added.  "The assurance for us has to be an extremely good early warning system." 

As part of the "early warning system," the CDC will install special testing equipment in Timperi's lab and in other areas of the state.  The testing equipment developed by the military allows doctors to confirm within a few hours if someone has been exposed to a disease like anthrax, smallpox or botulism.  Currently, such tests take up to 24 hours, Timperi said. 

Timperi said the state will use the CDC money to create a notification system requiring hospitals to report suspicious diseases or symptoms, similar to the system currently in use for food poisoning cases. DPH will also create an Internet-based reporting system to link boards of health with state and federal officials. The rest of the funds will go toward beefing up the emergency response team head quartered at the state lab. 
Timperi said the team has only been called out once; it was for a false alarm. 

Boston city officials say they are prepared for a biological attack because they've participated in nearly three years worth of federal training, including "war games" and full-scale exercises. 

"Unfortunately, we have to be very much on top of this issue.  It's the threat of the 21st century," said Elaine Sudanowicz, Mayor Thomas Menino's liaison to the Boston Emergency Management Agency. 
 

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