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EU unprepared for bioterror threat

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Published 14 February 2005 - Updated 08 June 2007
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The European Union is woefully unprepared for a terrorist attack using biological weapons, was the message given by scientists at a conference on worldwide security held in Brussels on 7-8 February.

CBRN

In Dec 2002, the member states adopted a joint programme on CBRN: chemical, biological and radiological and nuclear risks. This was a political and not a legislative instrument, setting out a strategy to be adopted by member states: it had four objectives:

  • Strengthening risk assessment
  • Reducing risk to population, the environment, food chain through protective measures
  • Quick detection, information exchange and coordination of response
  • Mitigation of consequences

Surveillance

Early warning systems to detect airborne chemical agents have been developed. However, their usefulness is very limited since they only operate for certain substances, would not guard against contamination of water or food supplies and the cost and practicality of installing them in public buildings would at present be prohibitive.

Vaccination

Experts currently believe that some 50-1,000 toxins could be made from natural or genetic sources but only 13 vaccines are currently available and only in limited quantities. There is no EU-wide stock of vaccines. To the extent that stocks have been made these have been at national level.

Health service capability

Progress in the eradication of transmittable diseases over the past decades has led to a dwindling of capacity in health services in the West to deal with a major outbreak of disease. Laws on, for example, quarantine are very outdated in most EU countries.

Positions: 

Conference Speakers

Jonathan Faull, director general of the Freedom, Security and Justice DG, said that protection against bioterrorism was one of the main policy priorities of the Barrosso Commission. Together with DG Public Health, a new entity was to be created, which would be a central planning and dissemination point for all information concerning possible attacks.

George Poste, director of the Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, took the view that it was misleading to lump chemical, biological and radiological types of attack together with nuclear: the problems, and therefore the necessary counter-measures, were highly distinct. He pointed out that the real issue to be addressed was the lack of preparedness for any type of major outbreak of disease, whether natural or resulting from a terrorist attack. New strains of natural disease had emerged in the past couple of years (eg SARS) that were likely to be as deadly as any man-made chemical or biological agent.

Mark Chandler, CEO of Rules-Based Medicine, pointed out the asymmetries involved in combating a bioterrorism threat: it costs very little to produce a toxin, but a great deal to guard against it. In his view, priority should be given to establishing procedures at hospitals for identifying suspect outbreaks and containing them. 

Other Organisations

The World Health Organisation has said that any infectious agents or toxic chemical could in theory be engineered for deliberate use as a weapon. Experts in this field believe that anthrax, botulism, plague, smallpox and tularaemia are the pathogens most likely to be used. In 2002, the WHO issued a resolution "Global public health response to natural occurrence, accidental release or deliberate use of biological and chemical agents or radio-nuclear material that affect health".

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Background: 

Bioterrorism was just one of the issues on the agenda of the second annual "Worldwide Security Conference", organised by the EastWest Institute, but certainly the most frightening. Javier Solana, in an opening speech, addressed the issues of exchanging information across the EU, combatting identity fraud, preventing money laundering and protecting the EU’s borders. All these things can be met with concrete practical measures. But, as explained by biotechnology research scientists Dr. Mark Chandler and Dr. George Poste,  bioterrorism is an entirely different matter.

Awareness of the threat of bioterrorism has been growing since the 2001 twin tower attacks, the US anthrax scare and latterly the belief that Iraq was developing chemical weapons. In 2001 the Commission started a programme to identify and manage the risk which was taken further in a 2003 Communication. In 2001, the Health Security Committee was set up. This group of EU health ministers developed the BICHAT programme (response to biological and chemical agents attacks) with the following objectives:

  • set up a mechanism for information exchange;
  • develop an EU-wide system for detection, identification and diagnosis of chemical agents;
  • create a stock of medicines, vaccinations and a database of health-care specialists;
  • provide guidance for health authorities on how to respond and liaise with international bodies.

In 2002 the Rapid Alert System for notification of actual or threatened chemical attacks was established, which liaises with a civil protection mechanism. This allows communication between member states on threats of attack; coordinates teams of experts in different areas and tracks the availability of vaccines etc. There is also a communicable diseases network, comprising a surveillance and an early warning and response system, which was useful in a number of natural disease outbreaks and is currently being extended.

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