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medpundit |
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Sunday, August 25, 2002But after being surprised by the virus four years ago, public health officials, even those in states without any cases yet, say they are more ready than ever, particularly because of additional money allocated for bioterrorism preparedness. The money is beginning to build an infrastructure that is being used to deal with any public health crisis, including West Nile. "The most likely bioterrorism event is none," said Dr. Starke, who was also involved in developing a bioterrorism surveillance plan for his area. "Our whole goal was that whatever we did for bioterrorism would improve public health in general, and West Nile is one of the first tests of that," he said. "Every day I get an e-mail from our county health department updating me on what's going on. That wasn't previously the case for a variety of these diseases. We're already seeing some small but distinct dividends." Now they just have to figure out how to deal with public health problems without making them seem more threatening than they really are. UPDATE: The hysteria is spreading to ornithologists in Ohio: Laura Jordan, one of five wildlife-rehabilitation experts certified by the state of Ohio to handle bald eagles, took the ailing immature bald eagle yesterday from North Ridgeville to her Medina Bird Center sanctuary in Chatham Township. The epidemic, she said, "is picking up, unfortunately." "I'm scared," she added. "I don't know what this is, and we need to know what to do. I just hate to see so many birds dying." posted by Sydney on 8/25/2002 08:21:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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