SARS helps prepare U.S. health system for bioterrorism

The international outbreak of a naturally occurring respiratory virus is helping prepare the U.S. public health system for a possible bioterrorism attack, federal health officials told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Monday.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said the mobilization of the national and international health community to deal with the deadly pneumonia-like virus Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, is similar to how experts would handle a bioterror attack.

NIH is working to develop a vaccine against the virus, which is believed to have originated in China, he said. "The investments we have made in emerging and re-emerging diseases can and will be rapidly deployed now and in the future-for deliberately or naturally released" diseases, Fauci said.

Scientists are expected to compete a model of the virus' genome to be used in research and treating the disease, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Julie Gerberding said.

Fauci and Gerberding stressed that the future of the SARS virus and its global impact are unknown. It could follow a "seasonal pattern," dying down during the summer months, Gerberding suggested. However, the spread of SARS may also be exacerbated by "super-spreaders," who are particularly contagious, she warned.

The virus is spread through droplets from an infected person's cough or sneeze, although scientists are examining the possibility of airborne transmission or transmission by contaminated objects. There have been 2,601 reported SARS cases and 98 deaths worldwide. There have been 148 suspected SARS cases in the United States, affecting 30 states.

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions ranking member Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., called the virus "a wake-up call" to the dangers of a potential biological attack and the importance of national preparedness. More funding will likely be needed to combat SARS and to prepare for a possible bioterror attack, he said.

"Homeland security means protecting our country against health threats as vigorously as we protect against military threats," Kennedy said. "Yet today, we are stretched to the limit in protecting our country against bioterrorism-we must provide the resources needed to meet both the man-made threat of terrorism and the natural threat of SARS."