Posted on 02/13/2003 10:45:08 PM PST by JohnHuang2
WASHINGTON -- As al-Qaida threatens to strike America with biological or chemical agents, National Guardsmen are not adequately prepared to respond to such terrorist attacks, warn U.S. Army scientists training them.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorism, the Army has been training National Guard teams from each state to respond to bioterror attacks at its Dugway Proving Ground labs in the Utah desert.
But bioscientists there say the units -- also known as civil support teams, or CSTs -- are ill-equipped to identify outbreaks of lethal, weaponized germs.
"The equipment in many cases for the teams is not standardized, and that is a big problem," said one Dugway biologist familiar with the training. "The nonstandardization of the equipment can cause problems if teams need to interact in a terrorist situation."
He predicted: "If we have a terrorist attack, the CSTs will not be able to respond adequately."
Phone calls to Army headquarters here for comment were not returned.
The training course is held at Dugway's Lothar Salomon Life Sciences Test Facility, which includes a 3,300-square-foot lab for Biosafety Level 3 testing. BL-3 agents include anthrax, botulinum toxin, tularemia and plague.
The CSTs are taught to detect the different pathogens in the event of an outbreak, using various techniques, such as staining and microscopy and gas chromatography, according to a Dugway "Biological Sampling and Detection Course" schedule obtained by WorldNetDaily.
Gas chromatography, a detection system that analyzes fatty acids, was used by the Connecticut Department of Public Health to identify anthrax in 94-year-old Ottilie Lundgren, one of the victims of the anthrax mail attacks that occurred just weeks after Sept. 11. The system also was used by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., to confirm the anthrax spores from the letters sent to Sens. Tom Daschle and Pat Leahy.
Early and accurate detection is critical in a mass bioterror attack. Patterns and sources must be identified, so that preventive measures can be taken.
What's more, infectious diseases like small pox incubate for a week or more, during which time the victim feels healthy but can infect others. If the outbreak isn't identified swiftly, and the population quarantined or treated with vaccinations, a second wave of infection could occur.
Properly trained and equipped, the CSTs could be the difference between an isolated outbreak and an epidemic, Dugway scientists assert.
All the Guard will be used for is roadblocks, along with FEMA, ATF and State Police.
They won't know about it until a bunch of cases are confirmed at the hospitals.
Then it's all about containment, curfews and chopper patrols.
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