Article by David Sainato. Reprinted with permission from Clinical Laboratory News, January 2002 issue. CLN is a publication of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry.
 
The war against terrorism is being fought on many fronts, including in clinical laboratories across the nation as they gear up to handle incidents of bioterrorism. Experts agree that U.S. hospitals were caught off-guard when reports of anthrax began to surface, even though local emergency rooms and clinical laboratories would be among the first to encounter patients who had been exposed to biowarfare agents. Because anthrax remains among the most likely agents to be used as a weapon of mass destruction, the medical community is now updating and beefing up its emergency plans and means of detecting Bacillus anthracis—the bacterium that causes anthrax.

“Just the fact that someone could launch an anthrax attack in the U.S. has, I think, been a wake-up call for everyone,” said Roland Valdes, Jr., PhD, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Vice-Chairman for Academic Affairs and Research, University of Louisville School of Medicine (Louisville, Ky.); Professor of Biochemistry and Director of Clinical Chemistry, University of Louisville Hospital; and co-author of a recent review article on the role of the clinical laboratory in managing bioterrorism. “Laboratorians should be aware that the potential is out there and that they need to have a plan and specific procedures to follow in the event of an attack using biological or chemical agents.”