US Pandemic Preparedness Red Flags Emerge

After first Ebola case, red flags emerge that U.S. unprepared for pandemic
Federal reports raise concerns US defenses stagnated, waning


Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Tom Frieden speaks during a news conference after confirming that a patient at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital has tested positive for Ebola, the first case of the disease to be diagnosed ...
more >

By Kelly Riddell - The Washington Times - Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The confirmation Tuesday of the first Ebola case on U.S. soil emerges against a backdrop of increasing concern in America’s medical community that preparedness for a pandemic has stagnated or slipped in recent years because of tough economic times and increasing malaise since the 2001 anthrax threat.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, America’s premier disease fighter, offered an air of confidence Tuesday in declaring that the first Ebola patient in Dallas
was carefully contained.

But earlier this year, it sounded less optimistic about the U.S. health care system’s ability to fight a pandemic should a major disease outbreak occur.

SEE ALSO: Ebola patient moved about Dallas for four days before needing treatment

“CDC continues to work with reduced financial resources, which similarly affects state, local, and insular public health departments. … These losses make it difficult for state and local health departments to continue to expand their preparedness capabilities, instead forcing them to focus on maintaining their current capabilities,” the CDC warned in a report this year.

CDC flagged several key trend lines, including congressional funding for public health emergency preparedness had shrunk by $1 billion from its highs shortly after the 2001 terrorist and anthrax attacks.

It also noted that state and local public health departments on the front lines of any health emergency have shed 45,700 jobs since the 2008 financial crisis.

The concerns, however, extend far beyond financial resources. The Department of Homeland Security

inspector general issued a scathing report in September warning the

department was woefully prepared for a pandemic, with expired medicines and inadequate resources to effectively equip its top responders in the field.

“DHS may not be able to provide sufficient pandemic preparedness supplies to its employees to continue operations during a pandemic,” the agency’s watchdog declared in a report made public Sept. 1.

“Without sufficiently determining its needs, the department has no assurance it will have an adequate amount of antiviral [drugs] to maintain critical operations during a pandemic,” the report said, warning of the effects for offices such as the Secret Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration.

Despite having the task of protecting the U.S. from dangerous threats, the Homeland Security Department “did not keep accurate records of what it purchased and it received,” the department’s inspector general found.

Homeland Security officials disagreed with much of the report, saying it was a misrepresentation of the agency’s preparedness for an outbreak.

Other preparedness concerns flagged in recent months include the ability of overburdened Border Patrol agents to screen immigrants for disease and inadequate tools to detect or combat a bioterrorist attack.

For instance, numerous government investigations have questioned the adequacy of the federal government’s premier biosurveillance system, code named BioWatch. The respected National Academies of Science questioned whether the current-generation system can detect hazards, and the next generation of the project is in danger of being canceled after the Government Accountability Office questioned its dealing with contractors.

“Over the past several years, our work has identified significant shortcomings in the department’s ability to manage an expanding portfolio of major acquisitions,” said the GAO report, dated June 10. “We recommended that before continuing the Gen-3 acquisition,

DHS should carry out key acquisition steps, including reevaluating the mission need and systematically analyzing alternatives based on cost-benefit and risk information.”

The message from the panoply of reports is clear: Although the U.S. clearly made strides after 2001 on pandemic preparation, those gains have stagnated and in some cases begun to reverse even as the risks for an outbreak grow with global travel and determined terrorists.

http://www.google.com/gwt/x?u=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/30/after-first-ebola-case-fears-turn-us-pandemic-prep/&ei=55orVMS9D6qDsALwkIHABQ&wsc=oa