Dane County's All-Hazards\ approach prepares for many different emergenciesWhile many scientists and politicians are concerned about health threats on a global scale, some are preoccupied with planning on a local level. Friday, Mary Proctor, program director of the south-central Wisconsin Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Consortium, detailed many of the steps that Dane County has taken to prepare for the possibility of a biological emergency in the area.
""All global threats eventually end up being local emergencies,"" Proctor said.
This philosophy has guided Dane County's planning, which has taken what Proctor calls an ""All-Hazards Approach."" This approach has led to several distinct components of a possible response to an emergency.
One major component is a set of portable decontamination tents that are stored in trailers at fire stations around the county. These tents are designed to help prevent biological agents, such as anthrax or influenza, from spreading from those initially affected.
According to Proctor, the tents can process up to 40 mobile or 15 immobile people per hour.
Among the other components is a pharmaceutical stockpile consisting of enough antibiotics to treat 10,000 people, with more available from the federal government if a disease continued spreading.
In the case of a viral epidemic, social distancing plans are continually being developed.
Proctor spoke as part of the Global Biological Threats Symposium presented Friday by the UW-Madison Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy. Other speakers lectured on topics ranging from avian influenza to wildlife disease monitoring.
Some components of Dane County's planning have already been utilized. On Aug. 18, 2005, an F3 tornado ripped through the Stoughton area, southeast of Madison.
As part of the government's response, area schools acted as distribution sites of tetanus vaccine.
Other parts of the response system, such as the decontamination tents, were tested at the Dane County Regional Airport in June 2005 during a simulated airplane hijacking. The exercise also tested the teamwork of different response agencies at the county, state and federal levels.
Much of Dane County's funding for these projects has come from the Metropolitan Medical Response System. Started in 1996 after the Sarin gas attack in Tokyo and the Oklahoma City bombing, the program has provided funding for wide-scale emergency training to 125 metropolitan areas around the country. Madison joined the program in 2001.
The MMRS assists cities in achieving ""the enhanced capability necessary to respond to a [terrorist-caused] mass casualty event,"" according to its website.
""These capabilities also increase the preparedness for events caused by hazardous materials, an epidemic disease outbreak or a natural disaster.""
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