As the country continues to combat terrorism at home and abroad, Virginia launched a statewide bioterrorism drill Sunday to test the overall readiness of regional hospitals and health departments in the event of another terrorist attack on Virginia soil.
States are required to perform antiterrorism drills in order to receive federal grant monies from the Centers for Disease Control. The drills are designed to test the ability of hospitals not only to identify the presence of a lethal biological nerve agent, but also to measure the effectiveness of communication between hospitals, local health departments and the public.
"In these situations, contacting the local health department is very important," said Trina Lee, spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Health.
Conducted by the Virginia Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control, the drill involves the simulated release of a specific biological nerve agent over the weekend in one region of the state. Several mock illnesses were reported to local health departments throughout the state Sunday and further investigation continues to take place.
The local departments already have unearthed several key details about the mock attack, Lee said.
"In Blacksburg, sometime between Friday and Saturday, 400 people were exposed [to a biological nerve agent]. We are trying to track down where were the people and what did they have in common," Lee said. She added that the investigators have narrowed down the origins of the attack to an event surrounding a mock Virginia Tech football game.
On Wednesday, the local departments will focus on an exercise involving the simulated distribution of a federal supply of medication, information and treatment supplies to prevent further spread of the germ. The supplies come from the Strategic National Stockpile, a compilation of medications stored in 12 secret locations throughout the country, which can be dispatched to any location in the country within 12 hours.
For the drill, six dispensing sites were selected based on an availability basis throughout the state. The participating sites are Abingdon, Norfolk, Richmond, Salem and Winchester. Fairfax also will dispense materials Saturday.
Tomorrow and Saturday, the drill also will involve 100-200 civilians, who will receive mock treatment.
According to Lee, in the event of an actual terrorist attack, more medical treatment dispensing sites will be set-up throughout the state.
The success of the drill will be measured by representatives from the Health Department and the CDC. Lee said the Health Department will be filing a "Lessons Learned" report within the coming weeks following the culmination of the drill to detail the state's degree of preparedness for a terrorist attack.
Lee stressed the evaluation was the most important part of the role-playing in order to recognize what needs to be done in the future regarding terrorism response.
All of the health districts in the state will participate in executing the drill to a certain extent. The closest clinical dispensing site to Charlottesville, however, is located in Winchester, said Pamela Burke, emergency preparedness planner for the Thomas Jefferson Health District, which encompasses the Charlottesville area.
"It's more of a communication drill," said Burke, adding the exercise would not be as active as last May's "TOPOFF 2" simulation, which involved a simulated "dirty bomb" explosion in Seattle and a plague outbreak in Chicago. Burke said the drill would be an opportunity to practice "table-top information sharing" among health departments, hospitals and the public.
Besides testing the ability of hospitals and health departments to respond to a biological attack, the drill also will require local health departments to create mock press releases containing important safety measures for the public. The press releases, which will not be made available to the public, will be included in the final evaluation.
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