Webcast Transcript
CDC Responds: Coping with Bioterrorism—The Role of the Laboratorian
(November 9, 2001)
(View the webcast on the University of North Carolina School of Public Health site.)
Segment 1 of 9
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Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan:
Good afternoon, and welcome to our videoconference on “Coping
with Bioterrorism—How
Our Laboratories Are Responding.” As recent events have shown so
dramatically, we must be constantly vigilant to protect our nation’s
health and security. The war of terrorism is being fought on many
fronts, and we must have a strong, robust public health system.
This system must be on guard at all times to prevent and respond
to multiple and simultaneous public health emergencies. Our system
must include a strong core public health capacity in each community,
combined with highly specialized expertise and facilities. Like
our system of national military preparedness, our public health
armaments, a skilled professional work force, robust information
and communication systems, strong public health departments and
laboratories, and effective private medical and community partnerships
must be in a constant state of readiness. Because health threats
know no boundaries, we can afford no weaknesses in our public health
line of defense. Either we are all protected or we are all at risk.
We must ensure that every health agency is fully prepared and that
every community is served by an effective public health system.
That said, the recent bioterrorism events in our community have
challenged both our medical care and public health systems, including
our laboratories. There are areas of the country where the laboratory
systems have been completely overwhelmed. Fortunately, state and
local laboratorians, as well as CDC staff, have helped provide surge
capacity. These challenges have made it clear that public health
and clinical laboratories need to have well-established relationships
and processes to ensure rapid detection and to provide timely and
accurate information. While CDC can help provide leadership and
technical assistance, the implementation must take place at the
state and local level.
In New York City, current crisis response efforts have been bolstered
by assistance from both the Department of Defense and CDC. In addition,
the public health laboratory and the clinical microbiology community
are meeting frequently to assure that capacity issues are being
addressed. These meetings provide a venue to discuss laboratory
needs as well as clarifying the roles that the broader laboratory
community can play in addressing these needs. The experience in
New York has made it clear that linkage among all labs and the rest
of the public health system is just as critical as the technical
capabilities of the labs themselves. Later in this videoconference,
you will hear of similar efforts taking place in Minnesota, where
the state public health laboratory is establishing links with 140
clinical microbiology laboratories around the state to provide health
alerts and advisories, assess the capabilities of the clinical microbiology
laboratories, identify gaps, provide training, and monitor the system.
While we will be focusing on addressing bioterrorism, many public
health problems require high quality laboratory testing. Initiatives
such as emerging infectious diseases, the epi and laboratory strengthening
program, the Food Safety Initiative, and the current bioterrorism
program all rely heavily on a system that requires integration of
the clinical and public health labs.
The broad base of clinical laboratories in this country is an essential
component of our nation’s public health and healthcare system. This
component constitutes a public health laboratory system of its own.
This conference is intended to help address questions from the clinical
and public health laboratory communities. We intend to hold these
conferences periodically to assure rapid transfer of critical information
and to assure an opportunity for clinical laboratorians to ask questions
and to provide comments to CDC. Thank you for participating in this
important event.
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- Page last updated November 20, 2002
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