SECUR> Health Data Monitored for Bioterror Warning

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Health Data Monitored for Bioterror Warning
By WILLIAM J. BROAD and JUDITH MILLER
The New York Times

To secure early warning of a bioterror attack, the government is building a
computerized network that will collect and analyze health data of people in
eight major cities, administration officials say.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is to lead the
multimillion-dollar surveillance effort, which officials expect to become
the cornerstone of a national network to spot disease outbreaks by tracking
data like doctor reports, emergency room visits and sales of flu medicine.
"Our goal is to have a model that any city could pick up and apply," a
senior administration official said of the plan.


Officials would not disclose the program's cost or which cities will be
involved. But experts say Washington is likely to be one of the eight.


Such surveillance is now possible because of an explosion in commercial
medical databases that health authorities, with permission and under strict
legal agreements, are starting to mine. In ambition and potential
usefulness, the health network goes far beyond an environmental surveillance
system, disclosed by the administration last week, that will sniff the air
for dangerous germs.

The emerging health monitoring network, officials and experts say, will
provide information that could save lives if terrorists strike with deadly
germs like smallpox or anthrax. In detecting attacks, a head start of even a
day or two can greatly lower death rates by letting doctors treat rapidly
and prevent an isolated outbreak from becoming an epidemic. A senior
official said President Bush was expected to refer to these new bioterrorism
defenses in his State of the Union address.

The disease centers' initiative represents a sharp swing to civilian
leadership in a field the military pioneered and once dominated. But even in
civilian hands, the emerging network has raised concerns that such
surveillance may violate individual medical privacy rights.

--snip--

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/27/national/27DISE.html?pagewanted=all

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