UofL faculty play key role in bioterrorism response

Anthrax, smallpox and plague aren't new to physicians, but these deadly diseases have taken on new significance since the terrorist attacks of September 11.

For more than three years, however, a team of UofL faculty members has been studying the potential vectors of bioterrorism and helping develop the means to respond following an attack.

The team -- part of a collaboration among government agencies, the medical community and emergency services known as the Crisis Management Group -- is comprised of Richard Clover, M.D., chair of family and community medicine; Ron Atlas, Ph.D., dean of the graduate school and a microbiology professor; Jim Snyder, Ph.D., director of microbiology in the division of laboratory medicine and a pathology professor; Paul McKinney, M.D., director of health services and policy research; and Bill Smock, M.D., director of the Tactical Medicine Program in the Department of Emergency Medicine.

The five men have been thinking about and practicing their responses to bioterrorist events since 1998, when someone sent a letter purported to be laced with anthrax to a Louisville abortion clinic. Snyder was the first to examine it.

The letter proved to be a hoax, but it led to the formation of the Crisis Management Group. In addition to meeting monthly since the incident to discuss "what-if" scenarios, the group also has participated in response training exercises sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

In August, the group was the guinea pig for the CDC's first unannounced test of a community's bioterrorism response. The group performed well, Clover says.

UofL faculty also play a significant role nationally in bioterrorism and biowarfare issues. All of the team members serve on national councils that have advised the president and the Centers for Disease Control, Clover explains.

Now, they are taking their collaboration one step further with the formation of the Center for Deterrence of Biowarfare and Bioterrorism. It's one of what appears to be only a handful of university-based centers in the United States.

"We're unique in the sense of the wide variety of expertise we have here," Clover says, pointing out that members' specialties range from identifying organisms used in bioterrorism events to developing vaccinations against those organisms and working with emergency personnel on their response to bioterrorism attacks.

The Center for the Deterrence of Biowarfare and Bioterrorism has several goals, Clover says.

One of those is to develop educational programs for physicians and community members.

Already, it has put in place a series of lectures being offered through the university's continuing medical education program to teach medical personnel how to recognize symptoms of biological warfare diseases and react to them.

The center also plans to apply for federal money to help the community improve its infrastructure for bioterrorism preparedness.

"We are very well prepared and are used as a national example, but there is always room for improvement," Clover says of his team and the group.

Research to improve early detection of bioterrorism disease is another objective.

Microbiologists such as Snyder, who has spent countless hours in his lab examining white powder since September, can conduct tests that within hours yield results that either raise or lower the probability that a substance is anthrax.

The goal, Clover says, is to decrease the wait time from hours to minutes.

Anthrax may be the most prevalent substance currently in the news, but it won't be the only biological agent the center will study.

"The scope of terrorist activities will be increasing," Clover says. "Anthrax is one of many agents that may be there, but we will see more types of activities beyond anthrax and planes going into buildings."

UofL's Center for Deterrence of Biowarfare and Bioterrorism currently is operating under temporary approval from the university's faculty senate, board of trustees and provost.

Within six months, it will present an organizational proposal and undergo a formal approval process.

Already, though, it has brought together faculty members to work for a common goal who may not otherwise have worked together, Clover says.

"Now we have collective efficiency and people power," he adds -- and the community has a resource it can tap should it ever need to react to a bioterrorist event.

"People should be confident that we have the expertise to respond to potential events," he says. "Of course, I hope we never have to respond to a real event."