Warren
County school conducts bioterror drill
Fake antibiotics distributed and instruction
video shown during Warren Hills operation.
Sunday, October 03, 2004 • By KURT BRESSWEIN •
The Express-Times
WASHINGTON TWP. -- Antibiotics for pneumonic plague
replaced lunch and salad Saturday at the fronts of lines in
the cafeteria of Warren Hills Regional High School.
Fortunately for the nearly 250 volunteers and
professionals in medicine and law enforcement present, the
bottles of antibiotics and the threat of plague were both
empty.
It was all part of Operation Scarlet Pestilence, a
three-day emergency exercise that tested the authorities'
abilities to triage patients and distribute medication.
Warren County was one of four counties in addition to
Newark to take part.
Had this been a real emergency, the infected would have
found a response built around being open with the patients.
The would-be patients got fact sheets on the treatment
system and the plague and were herded into the school's
auditorium for a video on what they were facing.
Preparations for the drill began about three months ago.
The scenario on which the exercise was based was a swell of
flu patients whose common link was their attendance at a
Sept. 25 sporting event at Rutgers University.
Local, state and federal officials met Thursday in
Trenton to plan their response. On Friday, the state
Department of Corrections delivered the empty medicine
bottles to the Warren County jail and locations in Monmouth
and Passaic counties.
Atlantic County and Newark participated in the drill but
without the antibiotics.
The medicine came from the federal Strategic National
Stockpile, a mix of pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and medical
supplies and equipment. The stockpile is spread throughout
the country and designed for deployment by air or ground to
any stateside location in 12 hours.
"They're pre-positioned in different places throughout
the U.S. and then they're distributed wherever they're
needed," John A. Hawk said about the stockpile's materials.
"In this case they were sent to New Jersey."
Hawk is Warren County's health officer and served in the
exercise as manager of the high school scene, known in
homeland security jargon as a point of dispensing, or
POD.
Layers of police checkpoints limited access to the
school during Saturday's drill. Yellow tape strung around
the front steps created a corral akin to the line for an
amusement park ride.
Medical professionals wearing masks gave the victims an
initial interview before sending them inside for triage,
which is an assessment of who is healthy but scared and who
is sick, sicker and sickest.
Those just scared were sent to talk to mental health
professionals, while the less fortunate were sent for one of
two antibiotics theoretically on hand. A pharmacist was
available to prescribe doses for children.
Mary E. Van Horn, Warren County's assistant public
health nursing supervisor, said the system is designed to
treat 300 patients an hour with injections and double that
for just pills.
Van Horn was pleased with the response Saturday.
"We are public health nursing and what we do is we deal
with the public, we deal with masses of people," Van Horn
said. "So this is not a new scenario for us."
John Horensky, the mayor of Washington Township and
Somerset County's health officer, noted the treatment plan
could serve any widespread illness or mass-casualty
scenario.
"We're due pretty soon for a major flu pandemic,"
Horensky said.
Kevin Hayden, director of operations and planning for
the state Department of Health and Senior Services, also
noted New Jersey was home to terrorists in the 1993 World
Trade Center bombing, the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and
post offices through which anthrax-laced letters passed in
2001.
"We think about New Jersey and we think about all the
things that are going on in the world today," Hayden said.
"You have to remember no matter what happens, whether it's a
manmade or natural catastrophe, there will always be health
and medical consequences."
In addition to 130 volunteers including Community
Emergency Response Teams from Washington Borough and
Phillipsburg, Saturday's exercise included about 115 medical
professionals and officials from the Warren County
prosecutor's office, office of emergency management and
health department; emergency medical services; police
departments; and the Department of Health and Senior
Services.
Operation Scarlet Pestilence was designed as prelude to
a multi-day exercise scheduled for April, known as Top Off,
for top officials. That is slated to involve all 21 counties
in New Jersey as well as Connecticut, the United Kingdom and
Canada.
"Heaven forbid this never happens," said Mark Frances, a
Warren County assistant prosecutor. "But it's been a great
experience so far for all of us to go through it. From our
perspective it looks like it's going pretty well here for
our first try."
Copyright 2004 The
Express-Times. Used with permission.
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