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medpundit |
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Sunday, September 08, 2002Twenty-six percent of respondents said they would know what to do in case of a bioterrorist attack, compared with 65 percent who said they would know what to do in the event of a natural disaster and 66 percent who reported knowing what to do during an infectious disease outbreak. Only 24 percent of FPs surveyed thought they could recognize signs and symptoms of bioterrorism-related illness in their patients. And while 93 percent of survey respondents said they report notifiable infectious disease cases to the health department, only 57 percent said they would know whom to call to report a suspected bioterrorist attack. Although the survey was done just after 9/11, I doubt if the responses would be much different if it were to be repeated today. There really haven’t been any attempts to educate physicians on bioterrorism, aside from a few articles in JAMA and The New England Journal Medicine, and information on websites of the various professional organizations. Sadly, few physicians are plugged into the internet, so that information isn't widely disseminated. Bioterror education is something our public health departments could be doing. They could hold local seminars on bioterror preparedness, educating us in how to recognize a potential bioterror-related illness and what to do about it. They've been conspicuosly silent on the matter, though, much to their shame. posted by Sydney on 9/08/2002 12:15:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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