September 15, 1999
Contact: CDC, Division of Media Relations
(404) 639–3286
States receive $40 million for stronger public health preparedness for
bioterrorism
HHS' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded $40 million today to states and
major cities to expand and upgrade their ability to detect and respond to biological and
chemical agents, and provide a public health response to terrorist acts in the United States.
These funds allow communities to develop or enhance public health capacities at the local and
state level. Specifically, CDC funded 127 project activities in the following five categories:
- $1.3 million for readiness planning assessment among local and state health departments;
- $7.8 million to build capacity to detect outbreaks of illness that might have been
caused by terrorists;
- $8.8 million to expand state and local biological laboratory capacity;
- $4 million for laboratory expertise to identify the biological or chemical agents
involved;
- $19 million for an improved electronic communications network, which will include
Internet access for local health departments to share information among public health
officials regarding unusual disease outbreaks.
The grants announced today are part of a total of $173 million in FY 1999 funding to
prepare against bioterrorism. This HHS funding will be used to improve the nation's public
health infrastructure to quickly detect disease symptoms from unknown agents and protect
against the consequences of these biological or chemical attacks.
In addition to the leadership, guidance, and resources that CDC is providing to States and
local communities, the agency is also enhancing laboratory services at CDC. These enhancements
will help public health laboratories to readily identify agents suspected in bioterrorism
events. Further, CDC has received $52 million to begin the establishment of a national
pharmaceutical stockpile, which will ensure the availability of drugs, vaccines, prophylactic
medicines, chemical antidotes, medical supplies, and equipment that will be needed to support
a medical response to a biological or chemical terrorist incident.
"Every dollar we spend on preparing public health locally for even the possibility of
a biological or chemical release among their civilian population is also a dollar that helps
reinvigorate our public health infrastructure," said CDC Director Jeffrey P. Koplan,
M.D., M.P.H. "The medical expertise, laboratories, and communication network needed to
counter bioterrorism are the same resources that are needed to detect diseases in the
community from any source, whether natural or deliberate."
A public health responsibility in the overall federal bioterrorism response is to improve
the public health community's ability to detect illnesses and determine quickly where it may
be related to a bioterrorism act.
"Terrorists can strike fast and disappear, leaving victims, unknowingly, to fall ill
days or weeks after the attack," said Scott Lillibridge, M.D., chief, CDC/Bioterrorism
Preparedness and Response Program. "A strong public health network across the nation is
needed to piece together early reports of illness and determine quickly what has happened.
We're encouraged by the focus local and state health departments have put on this need. "
