Developing and improving diagnostic and identification capability is essential for medical care, public health, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies and should be a national priority. The science base needed to deal with the broad spectrum of agents on the threat list, bacteria, viruses, toxins, and parasites, is widely distributed among several federal laboratories in the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy, as well as in universities and state public health laboratories. In addition, since many of the biologic agents are not normally large public health problems or popular subjects of scientific research, critical areas have inadequate research capability and limited expert personnel. Deficiencies in our scientific knowledge and a paucity of experts will ultimately limit our capability to rapidly and precisely identify agents and respond effectively in a crisis. For example, the global molecular epidemiology of the agents at the top of the threat list is critically important for identifying the organisms accurately and differentiating local from exotic strains.
Current databases are inadequate, and no organized effort is being made to fill in the gaps.
The current public discussion of the threat of biologic terrorism is an opportunity to evaluate our collective capabilities and to assess weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Raising the level of national preparedness will require leadership and action by responsible federal agencies. A thoughtful analysis of the consequences of unpreparedness provides a mandate for action.