[iwar] [fc:Doctors.Say.Bio-Attack.Would.Overwhelm.Hospitals]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-17 21:30:47


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Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 21:30:47 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Doctors.Say.Bio-Attack.Would.Overwhelm.Hospitals]
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Doctors Say Bio-Attack Would Overwhelm Hospitals

Reuters, 10/17/2001
<a href="http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011016/ts/attack_physicians_dc_1.html">http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011016/ts/attack_physicians_dc_1.html>
 A biological attack with anthrax or another agent could quickly
overwhelm an already overburdened U.S. health care system, hospital
emergency room physicians said on Tuesday.

While the number of U.S.  hospital emergency departments has shrunk by
20 percent in the past decade, they are treating 14 percent more
patients, said Dr.  Michael Carius, president of the American College of
Emergency Physicians (news - web sites). 

``A biological or chemical attack could push us over the brink,'' Carius
told a news conference during the group's annual convention. 

``We have to build the elasticity back into the system, make more
(hospital) beds available, and train our people to recognize the
symptoms'' of anthrax and other biological or chemical agents, he said. 

Several Florida colleagues reported that hospitals were overtaxed in the
area of a Boca Raton publishing firm where hundreds of employees have
been tested and are now being retested for anthrax. 

A photo editor at American Media Inc.  died, while eight other employees
have tested positive for exposure to anthrax. 

The emergency physicians group said tens of thousands of nurses and
medical technicians have left the profession because of low pay and poor
working conditions, a shortage that could turn critical in the event of
a biological or chemical attack. 

Even recognizing an epidemic is difficult for emergency departments,
where doctors and nurses are taught to treat one patient at a time and
work in shifts, said Jonathan Burstein, an emergency physician at
Harvard Medical School (news - web sites) and a Boston hospital. 

One solution would be to equip public health authorities with the
ability to compile cases and symptoms daily and look for patterns, he
added. 

A study to appear in the November issue of the group's journal, Annals
of Emergency Medicine, found that only one out of 30 hospitals surveyed
last year had stockpiled medicine for a biological attack.  Five out of
six hospitals could only handle 10 to 50 casualties at once. 

The physicians' group said it was lobbying the U.S.  Congress to
allocate more money to local efforts to prepare for such an attack and
to legislate changes in reimbursements for care that would put hospitals
on a better financial footing. 

Many hospital emergency departments have been shut after losing money
treating patients lacking health insurance for whom the emergency rooms
provide the care of last resort. 

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