Canada stocks up on smallpox vaccine, pushes bioterrorism training
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* Wayne Kondro

Canadian physicians, nurses, paramedics and other frontline health professionals will be asked to take biohazard refresher courses under a $12-million health- security package announced Oct. 18 by federal Health Minister Allan Rock. Other parts of the bioterrorism package, created in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the US, include the purchase of 300 180 doses of smallpox vaccine, of which roughly 200 000 would be available for civilian use. The government has also decided to buy enough doxycycline, ciprofloxacin and intravenous products to treat 100 000 people for 45 days in the event of exposure to biologic agents such as anthrax. Already, the National Emergency Stockpile System has been augmented with enough drugs to treat 40 000 people.

Under the new training program, provinces or their local health authorities are free to determine whether such training is mandatory for all frontline workers. Rock said in a teleconference that Ottawa will provide $1.61 million to “develop a network of 1500 trainers who will, in turn, teach practitioners and others at the local level so that they are ready to respond to adverse events.” However, “it remains to be seen” whether all health professionals will be trained. “We're making it available to our partners in provinces and the cities, in the local municipalities, as needed… . I expect the uptake will be very significant.”

Dr. Paul Gully, director general of the Centre for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, told *CMAJ* that local health authorities and the provinces must decide for themselves whether mandatory training will be required. It's expected that the training of the cadre of 1500 experts will commence within 3 months, Gully added.

The government will also spend $5.62 million to purchase chemical antidotes and antibiotics to treat people exposed to nerve agents like sarin or bioterrorist threats such as anthrax, smallpox, plague, tularemia, botulism and viruses that cause viral hemorrhagic fever.