Sherman County

Bioterrorism

The passage of the Bioterrorism Act of 2002 provided funding to all states for bioterrorism (BT) preparedness through a cooperative agreement program operated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The agreement provides support to state and selected local health departments in the following areas:

• Preparedness planning and readiness assessment

  • Establish strategic leadership, direction, assessment, and coordination of activities within the jurisdiction.

• Surveillance and epidemiology capacity:

  • Enable state and local health departments to enhance, design, and develop systems for rapid detection of unusual outbreaks that may be the result of bioterrorism.

• Laboratory capacity-biological agents

  • Ensure that core diagnostic capabilities for bioterrorism agents are available at all state and major city/county public health laboratories.

• Laboratory capacity-chemical agents

  • Ensure that core diagnostic capabilities for chemical agents are available at all state and major city / county public health laboratories.

• Health Alert Network / Communications and Information Technology

  •   Enable state and local public health agencies to establish and maintain a network that will:

    • Support exchange of key information and training by linking public health and private partners

    • Provide rapid dissemination of public health advisories to news media and the public

    • Ensure secure electronic data exchanges

    • Ensure protection of data, information, and systems, with adequate backup, organizational capacity, and surge capacity

• Risk Communication and Health Information Dissemination

  • Ensure that state and local public health organizations develop an effective risk-communication capacity that provides for timely information dissemination to the public during a bioterrorist attack.

• Education and Training: Ensure that state and local health departments have the capacity to:

  • Access the training needs for key public health and clinical care providers in their jurisdictions

  • Ensure that education and training are provided to key target audiences