From ignition-point-owner@listbox.com Mon Feb 02 23:51:09 1998 Received: from listbox.com ([208.210.124.23]) by THE-SPA.COM with SMTP (IPAD 2.03) id 3718200 ; Mon, 02 Feb 1998 23:51:09 EST Received: (qmail 19076 invoked by alias); 3 Feb 1998 04:47:32 -0000 Received: (qmail 18998 invoked by uid 516); 3 Feb 1998 04:47:27 -0000 Received: (qmail 18717 invoked from network); 3 Feb 1998 04:47:06 -0000 Received: from zoom1.telepath.com (HELO telepath.com) (root@205.228.200.20) by majordomo.pobox.com with SMTP; 3 Feb 1998 04:47:05 -0000 Received: from default (zoom2142.telepath.com [205.228.192.142]) by telepath.com (8.8.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id WAA06089; Mon, 2 Feb 1998 22:42:36 -0600 (CST) Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19980202224121.007c9780@telepath.com> X-Sender: believer@telepath.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.5 (32) Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 22:41:21 -0600 To: believer@telepath.com From: believer@telepath.com Subject: IP: Experts urge-formulate anthrax emergency response policy Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-ignition-point@majordomo.pobox.com Precedence: list Reply-To: believer@telepath.com Forwarded: ----------- >From the Jerusalem Post, 2/2/98 URL: http://www.jpost.com/com/Archive/02.Feb.1998/News/Article-4.html - Experts urge PM to formulate anthrax emergency response policy By JUDY SIEGEL JERUSALEM (February 2) - A team of public health experts has urged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to ensure the formulation of a national anthrax emergency response policy to cope with such a biological attack. The experts, who asked the premier to pass their memorandum on to the Health and Defense ministries, noted that the threat of bioterrorism "will be a long-lasting one; therefore, the policies for protection must be long-term, sustained, and sustainable, and not rely on shelter/sealed room/mask/shroud scenarios alone." The memorandum was prepared by Dr. Eli Richter of the occupational and environmental medicine unit of the Braun-Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health and Community Medicine and a team of his postgraduate students. They used as a model US armed forces personnel stationed in the Middle East, who are being vaccinated against anthrax. The team said that obviously, the preferred option is to prevent a biological attack on Israel at source, but that "there is no guarantee of 100% success, and the hazard of bioterrorism could remain after Saddam Hussein." A second option would be to do nothing to prevent an attack and equip the public with gas masks and protective plastic shrouds and advise them on preparing sealed rooms, as was the case in the Gulf War. But since many people would be outdoors during any biological weapon attack, the researchers said, some 30,000 could die under a worst-case scenario. A third option is vaccinating the public against anthrax, whose spores spread quickly and whose incubation is only two or three days, and giving antibiotics after an attack; a fourth option is vaccinating the population before an attack and giving more vaccine and antibiotics after an attack. The HU team recommends either the third or the fourth option. Two remaining options are doing nothing before an attack and then either vaccinating and giving antibiotics after an attack or just giving antibiotics without the vaccine. The cost of vaccine and antibiotics for the Tel Aviv-region before and/or after an attack could reach $350 million to $500 million, Richter said. Costs could be cut by initially vaccinating only children, as adults could get at least some protection from megadoses of antibiotics after an attack (which cannot be done with children), Richter said. Ze'ev Schiff reported in Ha'aretz yesterday that, according to US sources, Israel had requested hundreds of thousands of anthrax vaccine doses as protection against a biological attack by Iraq. Schiff said the Clinton administration agreed in principle, but that production of the vaccine would have to be stepped up, as the current slow rate of manufacture requires six years to vaccinate all US soldiers at a cost of $130 million. The first group to be vaccinated is 100,000 US soldiers in the Persian Gulf area. Health Ministry spokesman Yair Amikam would not comment yesterday on whether the government has a national anthrax emergency response policy, but stated that "the best minds are involved in this matter and we have the means to deal with anything that could happen." ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com with the message: subscribe ignition-point email@address or unsubscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** http://www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************