News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, April 28, 2004 |
Contact: HHS Press Office (202) 690-6343 |
HHS Fact Sheet: Biodefense Preparedness: Record of Accomplishment
Overview: President Bush has made strengthening the nation's defenses against biological weapons a critical national priority. While significant progress has been made, the President instructed federal departments and agencies to review their efforts and find new and better ways to secure America from bioattacks. The result of this review was "Biodefense for the 21st Century," a Presidential directive that provides a comprehensive framework for our nation's biodefense. Released in an unclassified version on April 28, "Biodefense for the 21st Century" builds on past accomplishments, specifies roles and responsibilities, and integrates the programs and efforts of various communities -- national security, medical, public health, intelligence, diplomatic, agricultural and law enforcement -- into a sustained and focused national effort against biological weapons threats."Biodefense for the 21st Century" outlines the essential pillars of our biodefense program and provides specific directives to further strengthen the significant gains put in place during the past three years. At HHS, in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security, preparations have included the following highlights:
Federal investment in Biodefense is up 17 times, and the
President has proposed another significant increase for next
year.
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Combined HHS and DHS Biodefense preparedness spending:
FY 2001 -- $294 million [HHS budget]
FY 2002 -- $3 billion
[HHS budget]
FY 2003 -- $4.4 billion [combined HHS and
DHS budgets for Biodefense]
FY 2004 -- $5.2 billion [combined HHS/DHS
– incl. BioShield proposal]
An unprecedented partnership effort with states and hospitals
was launched quickly.
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A total of $2.7 billion has been made available for state, local
and hospital preparedness since 2001. Another $1.5 billion
is being provided this year, with a further $1.3 billion
proposed for FY 2005.
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These awards comprise two programs: CDC’s program to
upgrade state and local capacity ($2 billion to date); and
HRSA’s program for hospital preparedness ($650 million to
date).
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Funds go through state public health agencies, but 75 percent
will ultimately go for direct or indirect support of local
public health departments and hospitals.
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States are drawing these funds as quickly as they are able to
ramp up their preparedness efforts and invest the money
productively.
Public health systems are already much stronger and better prepared
for bioterrorism and other mass casualty incidents.
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All 50 states have bioterrorism response plans in place,
including mass vaccination plans (few states had such planning
in 2001.)
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All states have established systems to rapidly detect a
terrorist event through mandatory reportable disease detection
systems.
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90 percent of CDC awardees so far report they could initiate a
field investigation within six hours of receiving an urgent
disease report.
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All states have plans in place for receiving and distributing
Push Packages from the Strategic National Stockpile.
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States are updating their laws for dealing with public health
emergencies, using the draft model legislation on emergency
health powers that was prepared by CDC. As of 2003, 32
states and the District of Columbia had passed bills or
resolutions related to the draft model legislation.
More workers and expertise have been directed at public health
emergency preparedness.
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Within the past 18 months, at least 3,850 new state and local
public health staff have been funded (in whole or part) by the
CDC awards.
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HHS staff dedicated to public health emergency preparedness in
now 1,700, up from 212 in FY 2001. Next year, the number
will rise again, to over 2,000.
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CDC has trained 500 staff for immediate emergency support.
CDC is also providing expert staff to state and local public
health agencies, with 500 to be assigned out by 2008.
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CDC continues to provide expert assistance, especially through
its “disease detectives,” the Epidemic Intelligence
Service. This two-year program has grown from 148 EIS
officers in 2001 to 168 in 2004.
America’s public health laboratory capacity, a crucial
element in detecting and understanding any disease outbreak, is
greatly expanding.
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The Laboratory Response Network, connecting labs of many kinds
that can help in an emergency, has been expanded to 120 member
labs in all 50 states, up from 80 labs in 2001. By the end
of FY 2004, the network will include 145 member labs. This
includes 47 state and local public health labs at the BSL-3
biosecurity level, four times the number in 1999.
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Last year, CDC provided specialized bioterrorism-related
training to 8,800 key laboratorians.
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Eleven new high-level biocontainment research laboratories are
being funded by NIH primarily for research purposes, but they
would also be available to assist in public health response to
bioterrorism or infectious disease emergencies.
Communications capacity within the public health structure has been
expanded and improved.
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CDC’s Public Health Information Network can reach 1
million recipients quickly, including 90 percent of all county
public health agencies so far, up from 68 percent in 2001.
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CDC’s EPI-X system also connects more than 1,800 public
health officials for immediate sharing of emergent public health
data, compared with 200 in 2001.
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These improvements will help make public communications clearer
and faster in an emergency.
Hospital preparedness efforts have resulted in new state- and
region-wide coordination, with coherent plans for investment and
response.
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For the first time, a nationwide initiative bought about joint
planning for public health emergencies by public systems and
hospitals working together toward federally-identified goals.
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All states have developed plans with their hospitals for dealing
with mass casualty incidents, including terrorism, accidents or
naturally-occurring disease.
Nationwide training for health care professionals is being
implemented, and scientific expertise is growing.
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Almost 174,000 health professionals are being trained in FY 2003
and 2004 through HRSA’s Bioterrorism Training and
Curriculum Development program, with 19 grants for continuing
education aimed at the diverse health care workforce, and 13
grants to health professions schools to develop curricula.
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NIH’s new “Regional Centers of Excellence for
Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases” will build a
strong infrastructure for research and development while also
developing our base of scientific expertise by training a new
generation of science professionals to perform Biodefense
research.
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CDC’s Centers for Public Health Preparedness (CPHP) help
prepare frontline health workers at the local level. There
are now 34 CPHPs in 46 states, comprised of schools of public
health, schools of medicine and other local institutions.
Federal emergency resources have been expanded to back-up local
resources when they become overwhelmed.
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The Strategic National Stockpile has increased 50 percent since
2001, now including twelve 50-ton “Push Packages,”
up from eight. The amount and variety of stockpile
contents has also grown.
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The National Disaster Medical System has 33 percent more
personnel for its emergency response teams – 8,000
personnel today, up from 6,000 in 2001.
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HHS had quadrupled the Readiness Force in the U.S. Public Health
Service Commissioned Corps, from 600 in 2001 to almost 2,300
today.
FDA is implementing the most fundamental enhancements of its food
safety activities in many years.
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FDA has more than doubled its presence at ports of entry, from
40 ports in 2001 to 90 ports today.
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This year, FDA is performing 60,000 inspections of imported
foods, five times more than in 2001. In FY 2005, FDA proposes to
conduct 97,000 inspections, eight times higher than 2001.
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FDA is implementing its new authority for registration of food
facilities (some 425,000 are expected to register); for
prior notification of food import shipment (some 20,000
notices per day expected); and for record-keeping and
administrative detention of suspected foods.
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FDA has created a Food Emergency Response Network, with 63 labs
representing 34 states – no such network existed in 2001.
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FDA is expanding its eLEXNET communications network for
immediate exchange of critical food testing data. At present,
there are 108 laboratories representing 49 states and the
District of Columbia. They are capable of dealing with more than
3,700 analytes. In 2000, there were eight labs, capable of
tracking a sole analyte.
The Biodefense research initiative is the largest single increase
in resources for any initiative in the history of NIH.
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Biodefense research funding at NIH has increased from $53
million in FY 2001 to $1.6 billion in FY 2004.
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The increased effort is guided by strategic plans developed with
the guidance of panels of scientific experts.
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More than 50 biodefense initiatives have been developed to
address research and development priorities in therapeutics,
vaccines, diagnostics, and basic research including genomics,
proteomics and bioinformatics.
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NIH has invested more than $800 million for 11 extramural labs
and three intramural labs, and physical security. These
are critical to developing countermeasures against agents of
bioterror.
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NIH will emphasize product development and cooperative
enterprises with private industry and academia, in addition to
its traditional role of supporting basic scientific research.
Progress in Biodefense research has been swift and substantial.
New and improved vaccines against smallpox, anthrax, and other
potential bioterror agents are being developed and evaluated and
will soon enter the national stockpile through Project BioShield.
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NIH rapidly developed a fast-acting Ebola virus vaccine and
showed its efficacy in monkeys; it is now being tested in human
volunteers.
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NIH-supported scientists have identified antivirals that may
play a role in treating smallpox or the complications of
smallpox vaccination, as well as new antibiotics and antitoxins
against other major bioterror threats.
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NIH has established eight Regional Centers of Excellence for
Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research (RCE). This
nationwide group of multidisciplinary centers is a key element
in the HHS strategic plan for biodefense research.
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NIH has supported the genomic sequencing of all bacteria
(including the anthrax bacterium) considered to be bioterror
threats, as well as the sequencing of genomes for at least one
strain of every potential viral and protozoan bioterror
pathogen.
Capacity is being expanded to produce medical countermeasures to
protect Americans from bioterrorism attacks.
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The supply of smallpox vaccine has increased from 15.4 million
doses available in 2001, to more than 300 million full doses
today, enough to vaccinate every American, if necessary.
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The Strategic National Stockpile includes enough antibiotic to
treat 20 million people for anthrax exposure, significantly
higher than in 2001. Research is also underway toward an
improved anthrax vaccine.
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The President has launched the BioShield initiative, to create a
more stable and assured source of funding to purchase new
vaccines or treatments. BioShield will provide $5.6
billion over the next 10 years for new products.
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FDA has approved new medical countermeasures, including
therapies for anthrax, radiation exposure and antidotes to nerve
agent poisoning. FDA has also implemented programs to
facilitate development of new products.
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In the past two years, FDA finalized the “animal
rule,” which provides for using animals to test the safety
and efficacy of products where human tests would be
unfeasible. This rule can important in development of many
Biodefense countermeasures.
Federal coordination and capacity has been expanded.
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The Department of Homeland Security creates a focal point for
federal leadership.
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HHS has created a top-level Office of Public Health Emergency
Preparedness to coordinate Department-wide efforts.
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HHS operating divisions work closely with states, providing
specific performance measures and benchmarks, with semi-annual
review of progress. HHS’ Office of Inspector General
is also increasing its activities to ensure proper accounting
and expenditure of federal support.
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In collaboration with the Department of Justice, CDC launched
the “Forensic Epidemiology” course in 2002 to train
frontline public health, public safety and law enforcement
professionals to conduct effective joint investigations.
So far, 42 states have elected to take part, and 5,000
professionals have been trained.
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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.
Last Revised: May 17, 2004
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