Wisconsin to Receive $25 Million for Bioterrorism

Wisconsin to Receive $25 Million for Bioterrorism

Funds to be used for labs, technology, research, communication and planning
WASHINGTON – HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced that the Department of Health and Human Services has made available an additional $1.4 billion to increase the capacity of states, territories and metro areas to respond to terrorism and other public health emergencies. Wisconsin is scheduled to receive $25 million, of which almost $16 Million will come from Center for Disease Control and and over $9 million from the Health Resources and Services Administration. The money will allow states to continue planning and upgrading the public health system and hospitals/health care entities that will be called upon to respond.
“Continuing to improve our public health system and the capacity of our hospitals and major health providers is crucial at this time in our nation’s history,” Secretary Thompson said. “We must build on the outstanding progress made in the past year and continue working with our state and local partners to enhance our readiness and our ability to respond to public health emergencies. Our combined efforts will result in a stronger system to care for Americans in emergencies, whether it be a bioterror attack or an infectious disease outbreak like SARS or West Nile virus.”
The funds will be used to upgrade infectious disease surveillance and investigation, enhance the readiness of hospitals and the health care system to deal with large numbers of casualties, expand public health laboratory and communications capacities and improve connectivity between hospitals, and city, local and state health departments to enhance disease reporting.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is providing $870 million. The funds are to be used for readiness assessment, surveillance and epidemiology, biological lab capacity, chemical lab capacity, communications technology, health information dissemination, education and training and smallpox preparedness planning.
This year, HHS is spending $3.5 billion this year for bioterrorism preparedness, including research into potential biological agents that could be used as bioterror weapons as well as potential treatments and vaccines. The fiscal year 2003 funding is up from about $1.8 billion for these activities in 2002.
To view the amounts awarded for each state click here.