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COVER STORY: BIOTERRORISM
Pro-active Measures
The Government has
been active. Postal employees have been supplied with gloves and masks.
Helplines have been established at NICD. Hospitals are on alert. Guidelines
on biological and chemical attacks have been issued to more than 15,000
hospitals and primary healthcare centres around the country, according
to B.M. Das, director, emergency relief, Directorate General of Health
Services. Delhi, a prime target, has been divided into three zones with
a hospital in each. Says B.M. Aiyanna, director, medical services, Indraprastha
Apollo Hospital, "We have 50 beds ready right now. In 24 hours, we
will be able to provide 200 beds." Even crowded government hospitals
like Delhi's Safdarjung hospital have earmarked space and 30 beds in case
of such attacks. Similar measures are in place at the All India Institute
of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
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TAKING NO CHANCES: An emergency service police officer sprays
a mailbox in New York
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Other states have followed suit. Whether the
measures are adequate is debatable, though. In Punjab, Chief Minister
Parkash Singh Badal's action plan is restricted to setting up a control
room in each district, and seal-and-segregate action against suspect mail.
At Wagah, the only land route between the India and Pakistan, customs
officials are scanning sealed mailbags with X-rays. But the state lacks
anthrax-testing facilities. The Maharashtra Government intends to counter
panic through education and information.
Along with NICD, 14 other laboratories will
be upgraded to handle dangerous pathogens. Antibiotics, such as ciprofloxacin,
have been stocked. India alone has 78 formulators for the drug. Pharmaceutical
firms like Ranbaxy are prepared to meet an increase in demand, says director
S.D. Kaul.
DRDO's Gwalior-based laboratories have established
simple methods to detect organisms that cause plague, dengue, meningitis
and typhoid within 24 hours. The knowledge can be transferred easily,
says R.V. Swamy, chief coordinator, Research and Development, DRDO. Kits
to detect chemical threats in water and soil are also ready. "DRDO
is working closely with civilian authorities to train doctors and police,"
says Aatre.
But gaps remain. Most laboratories here, as
elsewhere in the world, are not secure. Leaking water pipes make water
supply a vulnerable zone. Smallpox, which is officially eradicated, remains
a threat. A generation of Indians has not been vaccinated against the
disease. The germs may have been made even more potent by biotechnology.
Doctors are inexperienced in handling these diseases. "We have to
remind ourselves of what we've read in medical textbooks," says Shreekant
Sapatnekar, director, Haffkine Institute, Mumbai. But there's a silver
lining: years of epidemics-cholera, dengue, typhoid-have also provided
most Indians with a strong in-built immunity. "We are eating, living,
sleeping with germs here," points out Das. That may well be our saviour
in a biological war.
—with Sandeep Unnithan, Ramesh Vinayak
and bureau reports
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