Technologies to Enable Autonomous Detection for BioWatch Ensuring Timely and Accurate Information for Public Health Officials: Workshop Summary (2014) / Chapter Skim
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2 Overview of the BioWatch Program
2 Overview of the BioWatch Program
Pages 7-22
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From page 7... ...
The aim of an autonomous detection system is to be "better, faster, and cheaper"; reducing time to response could save lives. BIOTHREAT: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Robert Kadlec, former special assistant to the President for homeland security and senior director for biological defense policy on the White House Homeland Security Council and now a consultant with RPK Consulting, discussed the historical background about bioweapons concerns.
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The Soviet program has been detailed in two books: The Dead Hand, for which author David Hoffman (2009) won the Pulitzer Prize in 2010, and, more recently, The Soviet Biological Weapons Program: A History, by Milton Leitenberg et al.
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Also during the 1990s, the Japanese religious cult and terrorist organization Aum Shinrikyo was producing biological agents and attempted, unsuccessfully, to conduct attacks with these weapons. What is significant about the near-miss, Kadlec said, is that the intelligence community and Japanese police authorities were totally unaware of this activity, just as the United States had been unaware of the size and significance of the Soviet Union's program.
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"The requirement for an automated detection system ought to be able to turn on a dime and be able to measure agents that are deemed to be the highest risk," he said. BIOWATCH PROGRAM HISTORY Jeff Runge, former assistant secretary for health affairs and chief medical officer at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
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This effort was led by the White House Office of Homeland Security -- BioWatch moved to the Science and Technology Directorate within DHS when DHS was created -- and involved extensive interagency cooperation among the CDC, EPA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and numerous state and local government agencies, including public health, emergency management, law enforcement, and local environmental protection. "As you can imagine, this was a monumental task to do in a hurry and is actually an interesting feat in history," Runge said.
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purpose was to protect the nation." Speaking of the top-down approach that was taken when BioWatch was first established, Runge likened it to setting up North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) radars around the country and asking local police departments to monitor the radars and call a national clearing office if they detected incoming missiles.
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The detectors FIGURE 2-1 Normalized timeline of an aerosolized anthrax attack. NOTE: DHS = Department of Homeland Security; EPA = Environmental Protection Agency; IC = Incident Command; PEP = postexposure prophylaxis.
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Above all, the timely detection of biological agents is crucial as the first step in enabling the timely deployment of medical countermeasures to the public, agent identification, and immediate notification and simultaneous situational awareness for federal, state, and local officials. Detection delays greater than 24 hours severely limit the usefulness of any biodetection system, as does a distributed network with scores of owners.
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and local special events such as parades, marathons, and even the Super Bowl at the request of local jurisdictions. Walter noted that although there has been controversy about what constitutes a false-positive, the program maintains that from a technical, analytical, and operational
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that will enable local jurisdictions to be the first to respond to a bioterrorism attack, with local authorities applying their expertise and knowledge of their own cities and counties. BioWatch assists in planning and preparedness by providing guidance documents that point out various considerations that the local authorities can use as they formulate their plans.
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NOTE: BAR = BioWatch Actionable Result; NRF = National Response Framework. SOURCE: Walter presentation, June 25, 2013.
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All analyses are performed using PCR that identifies target organisms through DNA signatures. The assays themselves are designed by DoD's Critical Reagents Program and CDC's Laboratory Response Network.
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SOURCE: Walter presentation, June 25, 2013. Future Autonomous Detection Systems In the future, BioWatch plans to develop an autonomous detection system, which, Walter noted, is not necessarily the same as the Generation 3 program that has been put on hold pending an independent analysis of alternatives, which is currently ongoing.
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FIGURE 2-5 Comparison of detection timelines: Event-to-detection and confirmation. NOTE: BAR = BioWatch Actionable Result; PCR = polymerase chain reaction.
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Luke Church and former director of Biological and Chemical Countermeasures for the DHS Science and Technology Directorate, reiterated that the deployment of an autonomous system will not change the fact that local public health officials will still be responsible for declaring a BAR. He also stressed that CDC and DHS officials will still be available for consultations prior to declaring a BAR.
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Walter responded that it could take a year or longer because, in addition to the assay itself, there would need to be accompanying bioinformatics. Although reagents can be ordered quickly through CDC and DoD, the primary reagent suppliers for the BioWatch program, Walter said that validation is needed to ensure that the assay is working accurately, and this process could take a substantial amount of time.
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