Founded in 2001 to train professionals in biosecurity and disaster preparedness, the Institute for Biosecurity at Saint Louis University’s College for Public Health and Social Justice recently told Homeland Preparedness News that the United States needs to continuously improve on its infrastructure to remain resilient and respond to bioterror or pandemic events.
“We are better prepared than we were five or 10 years ago,” Terri Rebmann, a professor and director of the Institute for Biosecurity, said. “We are getting better incrementally.”
Rebmann, a PhD nurse researcher with an emphasis in infectious disease emergency preparedness, is board certified in infection control and epidemiology. Her research includes a focus on including healthcare and public health professional disaster preparedness, the long-term use of respiratory protection and addressing barriers to vaccine uptake. She publishes and lectures on bioterrorism, pandemic planning, emerging infectious diseases and infection prevention practices on a national basis.
“The biosecurity field is expanding rapidly both locally and globally,” Rebmann said.
To keep pace with the field, the institute’s primary goals are to create and distribute educational programs and products for people who work in emergency management and to offer academic programs to train people in the fields of disaster.
“This is a great time to do a formal education program in biodefense because the job market is expanding so radically,” Rebmann said. “Our alumni are really changing the world and it’s an exciting time for people to engage in work that is dynamic.”
Because of the dynamic nature of biodefense, preparedness remains an integral part of any event response. To that end, Rebmann said that the U.S. needs to focus on the process of mass distribution of medical countermeasure defenses. Currently, she said, there is a disconnect between the local levels’ access to medical countermeasures and their ability to dispense them.
Congress has taken steps to increase the availability of medical countermeasures with the First Responders Anthrax Preparedness Act, H.R. 1300, introduced by U.S. Rep. Peter King (R-TX). The legislation would establish a program to provide surplus BioThrax anthrax vaccines from the Strategic National Stockpile that are nearing the end of their labeled dates to emergency response providers who are at high risk of anthrax exposure.
Rather than simply prepare a response for an attack, though, Rebmann cautions that many of the potential outcomes are preventable. For that reason, one of the constant goals of the institute is to encourage Congress to continue investing in infrastructure.