BIOTERROR FUNDS EN ROUTE MILLIONS TO BE SPENT ON PREVENTIVE MEASURES.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Stressing that the risk of a bioterrorism attack is now ``significant and pressing,'' federal officials have awarded Los Angeles County $28.3 million in bioterrorism funds, county officials said Friday.

The money is part of $100 million the state received, but because Los Angeles County is considered one of four metropolitan areas at high risk of a bioterrorism attack, the county got its own money. The other cities are New York City, Washington, D.C., and Chicago.

The money will be used to help hospitals buy personal protective suits and decontamination showers, expand laboratory testing facilities and start a surveillance system to detect the outbreak of a biological agent.

Federal officials said the county needs to have plans in place to distribute vaccinations and antibiotics to the county's 10 million residents in three to five days and hospitals should be able to accommodate a surge of 500 acutely ill patients.

They said hospital emergency rooms should have isolation rooms in case of the spread of smallpox.

``I commend you on what you have accomplished over the very short period of time you had to pull these plans together,'' federal Office of Public Health Preparedness Director Jerome M. Hauer wrote in a letter to to county Public Health Officer Dr. Jonathan Fielding.

``The risk of a bioterrorist attack is recognized now to be significant and pressing. We are working diligently to strengthen our national resources to be prepared and supportive, but success in dealing with an epidemic depends primarily on how rapidly and effectively local and state programs can respond.''

County Emergency Medical Services Director Virginia Hastings said the county could not distribute vaccinations and antibiotics to all of its residents within five days, but it does have stockpiles of drugs stored in secret locations.

``We know the amount that each hospital has, we know what is in our caches and we think we would have enough to manage an incident until the federal supplies started coming in,'' Hastings said. ``We have talked to airports about landing sites.''

In the event of an outbreak, Hastings said all 81 hospitals in the county would implement their disaster plans, discharge people and cancel elective surgeries to open up beds. Also, the county has supplies stored throughout the county to allow it to set up field hospitals.

``If it were something like smallpox, Dr. Fielding would identify quarantine locations for those patients,'' Hastings said. ``The health officer has broad authority to take over places. Those authorities were put in place years ago from tuberculous-type of quarantines.''

Hastings said the county needs to do more work with hospitals to develop isolation rooms. The county surveyed hospitals to determine the number of isolation rooms, but didn't ask how air gets in and out of the rooms.

She said more than 300 ambulances, including city, county and private paramedic units, have been supplied with chemical antidotes, and hospital personnel have been given protective gear, and officials are working on outside showers and drainage systems so workers can rinse off.