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Sunday, September 29, 2002Nearly all (95%) of the survey respondents agreed that "a bioterrorist attack is a real threat in the United States," Hickner and his colleagues report in the September issue of the Journal of Family Practice. And most doctors (96%) believed anthrax was the most likely biologic agent to be used. Still, less than 30% of the doctors believed the US could effectively respond to such an attack and only about a quarter of the physicians said they would know what to do, study findings indicate. "Most family physicians do not feel confident in dealing with a possible bioterrorism attack in their communities," Hickner said. "Most desire more education so that they will be able to confidently handle such situations." Indeed, more than 90% of the physicians surveyed said they were interested in receiving training about how to respond to a bioterrorist attack, the researchers report. This is a message the local health departments need to hear. I wrote to my state health department, a department which has benefited from HHS funds for bioterrorism, voicing my concerns about the lack of any effort to educate practicing physicians on how to respond to a potential bioterrorist threat. They pointed me to websites that I already regularly visit (essentially ignoring the point I made about many physicians not being connected to the internet), and assured me that my local health department has been providing grand rounds at local hospitals and medical conferences at the nearby medical school. If that’s true, they’ve been a well-kept secret, because I haven’t heard about them, and none of my colleagues can remember hearing anything about them, either. I wrote my local health department to voice the same concerns, but as of yet, no answer. I don’t really expect to get one. They’re too busy trying to educate me about preventing falls in the elderly. posted by Sydney on 9/29/2002 07:49:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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