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As the United States considers the best strategy for distributing medical countermeasures for use in the event of a bioterrorism incident, the government should look at providing citizens with their own "home medkits" of materials, a former Health and Human Services deputy secretary said in a report yesterday by the Washington Times (see GSN, Feb. 5).
"Medkits let individuals prepare themselves and their families for possible biological incidents -- be they naturally occurring or man-made -- and they reduce the burden on federal officials who have to distribute desperately needed medications to thousands if not millions of people in a very short time frame," said Tevi Troy, who served at the health agency and other offices in the Bush administration.
The congressionally mandated Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism in January gave the federal government a failing grade for its efforts to prepare the nation for a biological weapons attack.
"As the Obama administration looks at options for improving its recent failing grade on rapid response to biological attacks, they should make sure to consider home medkits as part of their countermeasure distribution took kit," Troy said.
Washington is believed to be weighing countermeasure delivery systems that would distribute stockpiled treatments for anthrax and other possible bioterrorism agents to residents through the the U.S. Postal Service or at special distribution centers, the Times reported.
"Unfortunately, some public health experts and federal officials don't like medkits because they fear that people can't be trusted to use the materials only when necessary," Troy said. "This short-sighted mentality will make it much harder to get crucial countermeasures distributed appropriately when needed" (Jennifer Harper, Washington Times, Feb. 25).