Public Health and Anthrax

Anthrax When it comes to possible or actual terror weapons, there are very few things that are portable yet as lethal as anthrax. As was seen during the days after 9/11 and at other times in the history of the United States, the threat of anthrax is so scary and real that people go pale at the mere site of any sort of white powder in or on a mailed letter or anything else along those lines.

This report shall cover the health policy implications of anthrax and what can be done about it in terms of emergency preparedness. While the anthrax threat is not widespread in general terms, it is known to be potentially lethal and causes hysteria wherever it is threated or when it actually happens.

When it comes to healthcare policy when it relates to anthrax, the two main weapons that the Department of Homeland Security and other related American agencies use are the anthrax vaccine for susceptible parties and a general public health policy that is meant to deal with anthrax threats when they arise. Indeed, the epicenter of this policy when it comes to the United States emanates from the Centers for Disease Control.

One challenge that is still present at this time is that the current anthrax vaccine requires six doses over eighteen months and then annual boosters beyond that. Because the logistics of upholding such a series of shots for any large number of people is difficult or perhaps impossible, a new and less labor-intensive vaccine program is obviously desirable. Beyond that, there are those that are recommended to take the vaccine but have chosen not to do so.

Regardless, the use of the vaccine with the general public is not done and there are no immediate prospects of that changing. This is not a huge problem as exposures are usually localized at the original point of contact. The vaccine, despite its issues, seems to be rather effective in monkeys when it comes to strains that will kills 900 times the LD50 (the exposure that would kill half of all patients) due to lesser amounts of that same virus (Weiss, Weiss & Weiss, 2007).

As far as emergency preparedness goes, the aforementioned CDC has plans in place to deal with anthrax attack if/when it occurs. After all, the material could be converted into aerosol form and transmitted over a wide geographic area if handled the right way. As for what the average person should do to be prepared, this would include keeping a family medical history including the conditions of each family member, the allergies of that person, the medicines that each person is taking and the weight of each child.

If anthrax exposure is suspected, the usual solution is to take antibiotics but it has to be known whether that should happen at any given time and what/how much should be taken. Regardless, there should be an emergency kit available at each house. As for what the CDC itself is doing to prepare, they list off several things on their website.

These include the providing of funds and guidance, the providing of response training, the coordination of response activities, the regulation of biological agents, the promoting of science programs to include preparedness and treatments and so on.

There is also the developing of guidance to protect the health and safety of workers, the CDC working with hospitals and laboratories, among others, to improve the medicines and amount thereof on hand and ensuring that the amount of laboratories in general is sufficient to meet the demand and needs of the country if an exposure.