Physicians are early warning system against bioterrorism

Reporting suspicious disease clusters to public health agencies is a critical part of the nation's ability to combat an attack involving a biological pathogen.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Oct. 15, 2001.

Washington -- All physicians will be on the front lines if a bioterrorism event occurs.

After the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., the threat of an assault with a lethal virus or other pathogen, already considered a very real possibility by many in the medical community, has moved to the top of the public's fears.

"It's not that the risk is greater now," said J. Chris Hawk III, MD, a member of the AMA's bioterrorism subcommittee and a surgeon in Charleston, S.C. "It's just that a lot more people realize that terrorism is real."

Smallpox, for example, is one of the most feared biological agents. It could kill thousands of people and result in the re-establishment of a disease now considered eradicated -- representing a major setback for modern medicine. It also would represent a different kind of challenge for health care professionals confronting such a disaster situation.

Emergency physicians in New York and Washington knew precisely what they had to do when terrorists crashed their hijacked aircraft into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But what could office-based physicians do if terrorists unleash this virus, or another deadly scourge, in their communities?

As it turns out, they can do plenty.

Physicians serve as the nation's early warning system by being alert to unusual illnesses or questioning the severity of symptoms in patients.

For one thing, physicians should be suspicious of unusual disease clusters, said Timothy Flaherty, MD, chair of the AMA Board of Trustees. The AMA Council on Scientific Affairs began studying terrorism in 1999 and has established a subcommittee on bioterrorism. There will be a session on bioterrorism at the AMA Interim Meeting in December. [...]