Surveillance, quarantine, laboratory testing and immunization are important bio-medical defense measures against bio-terrorism, experts at an international conference said yesterday.
At present, surveillance systems in Taiwan are active, and over 500 medical staff report to the government each week on anomalies, Center for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said.
As an example of laboratory measures to counter bio-terrorism, he said that pathogenic information should be collected and that exchanges of disease information should be facilitated.
In terms of quarantine measures, Chou said that since the SARS outbreak in 2003, it has been possible to call up passenger information on travelers and transfer it to local health authorities for monitoring.
According to Chou, foreign workers in Taiwan are an important source of infectious disease. As such, their health conditions are closely surveyed in Taiwan.
While bio-terrorism may not cause as much damage as infectious disease pandemics, they are linked, as disease outbreaks may occur as a result of terrorism, and both have the potential to cause significant casualties.
"Infectious diseases are the second leading cause of death in the world, and the biggest killer of young children," Chou said.
Reviewing lessons learned from the SARS outbreak in 2003, Chen Yee-chun (
Chen said that in 2003, among the 232 SARS cases admitted to the hospital 17 were healthcare workers. In particular, one staffer who had close contact with the first SARS patient, admitted to the hospital March 14, developed the disease because a respirator had not been properly tested for its fit.
Environmental contamination was seen as another danger, as studies showed that 31 of the 232 SARS patients admitted to the hospital in 2003 contracted the disease because they had visited the emergency room, where a SARS screening area had been established.
The risk posed by a contaminated environment was also emphasized by a senior research fellow from Poland's Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Marcin Niemcewicz.
Before entry into a medical facility everyone and everything should be decontaminated, including vehicles entering infected zones, Niemcewicz said.
Chen also said that government agencies need to work with the healthcare system, including health insurance systems and social services, well in advance of epidemic emergencies to maximize limited resources and distribute them equitably.
"A major lesson from the SARS experience is that government planning and intervention are required," she said.
Barry Kellman, Director of the International Weapons Control Center at Depaul University in Chicago, said it was important to take legal measures to prevent access to bio-terrorism agents.
"Although response measures are very important, we leave something out of the equation if we don't talk about prevention," he said.
Kellman said legal requirements against bio-terrorism are vague and inconsistent, citing the example of the Biological Weapons Convention, which says that states must take "necessary measures," against bio-terrorism.
Kellman said that laboratory and pathogen security should be increased to make it difficult for terrorists to gain access to materials.
The conference was organized by the Department of Health and the Ministry of National Defense.
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