Such a future is conceivable because of the accelerated pace of molecular biology research and development of methods to safely transfer (or what specialists refer to as “deliver”) synthetic genes into people.ĭNA vaccines, for example, are based on the delivery of synthetic genes that code for individual proteins found on a bacteria or a virus-instead of using the whole pathogen itself as a basis for the vaccine. This approach offers the long-term prospect of a stockpile that could simultaneously be more comprehensive and vastly cheaper to establish and maintain. To address this problem, future stockpiles may benefit from an emerging approach to disease treatment: shifting countermeasures from today’s emphasis on protein-based vaccines and antitoxins to a new system primarily focused on nucleic acid (DNA and RNA) coding for genes that help the body protect itself from myriad infectious diseases and toxins. There is also the possibility that an adversary could select or engineer an agent that is simply resistant to all-known medications. And stockpiling countermeasures for every conceivable individual agent is currently not feasible because countermeasures for some biothreat agents do not even exist yet-and even if they did, the continuous maintenance of copious countermeasures may not be logistically or financially feasible. The reason for this is that although the stockpile includes what are presumed to be the best medical countermeasures for a broad range of potential biothreats-we don’t know the exact inventory because the identity of the contents are closely held -there is an even broader range of potential biothreat agents that an adversary could use in an attack. ![]() This is one reason why the drugs found in everyday household medicine cabinets are stamped with expiration dates-even including a bottle of aspirin.Ĭonsequently, one of the most surprising features about the stockpile is that in all likelihood, it is probably incomplete. Although the cost of maintaining this vast array of countermeasures is small in light of the impact of the large-scale release of some biothreat agents, the cost is still significant partially because one cannot simply squirrel away a pile of these materials and forget about them things degrade and their potency diminishes over time. The idea behind the stockpile is that if a biological attack occurs, enough resources will be available to ensure that exposed populations have rapid access to medical countermeasures, including the antibiotics, anti-toxins, and vaccines stored in its vast warehouses. They could be used as therapies that are straightforward to produce, cheap and easy to store, and in quantities large enough for a massive number of doses to be maintained within a small footprint at several different sites scattered across the country. ![]() So what, exactly, is the Strategic National Stockpile for Biodefense? What are some of the possibilities for the stockpile’s future, and how might they affect the way these supplies are delivered to the site of a biological attack and used in the future? And how could they deal with engineered or antibiotic-resistant variants of known biothreat agents? The answers may lie in new technologies that uses gene-based approaches-based upon the nucleic acids DNA and RNA. Laid flat, they’d cover more than 31 football fields-or 41 acres of land.” Yet many people have not heard of this stockpile-even though the Washington Post estimates that “ationwide, the repository contains enough medical countermeasures to add up to more than 133,995 pallets. And the stockpile’s team spends years in planning, training, and conducting exercises, so that responders will know what to do if 100,000 cases of some new disease with pandemic potential appears-what global health officials have sometimes dubbed as “Disease X.” ![]() Its name: the Strategic National Stockpile for Biodefense.Īnd this organization is likely the first thing that the country will turn to in the event of a biological attack, relying on the massive quantities it has on hand of shrink-wrapped boxes of life-saving medicines, to combat everything from smallpox to influenza.
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