Security threat assessments should incorporate disease research

Security threat assessments should incorporate disease research

National security threat assessments by the intelligence community need to incorporate information from medical and epidemiological research on new and reemerging infectious diseases, a RAND study on national security and infectious disease suggests.

The study, subtitled "Reconciling U.S. National Security and Public Health Policy," recommends assessments and forecasts of national security risk "be more closely grounded on scientifically formulated models that integrate the work of the medical research sector on new and reemerging diseases." Further, security analysts from the intelligence community need to "devote greater attention to the epidemiological literature as part of their regular reading 'diet,'" the report remarks.

Co-authored by RAND scientists Jennifer Brower and Peter Chalk the study examines the threats to U.S. and global security posed by infectious diseases. Saying "countries that do not pose an obvious military security danger may be the ones likely to pose a disease risk," the report calls for intelligence organizations like the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency to modify overseas monitoring activities to include a wider range of concerns. Specifically, the report suggests focusing on areas such as the effectiveness of national medical screening programs; prevailing geopolitical, social, economic and environmental conditions that affect disease incidence; and state compliance with international health conventions and agreements.

The authors recommend increasing the number of health care workers in the country by creating a dedicated public health service reserve group that could be activated in the event of an emergency. Modeled after the military reserve force, a public health reserve could be trained for relatively low-level medical and public health duties, such as administering drugs and vaccines, the report offers.

The RAND study also recommends devoting more resources toward foreign governments to help increase their own internal disease prevention efforts. This might include mutual aid agreements for sharing biological intelligence, medical supplies and techniques, as well as assisting foreign countries in setting up disease surveillance networks.

Reiterating ideas prominent in preparedness efforts over the last two years, the report calls for increased coordination among public health authorities at all levels of government and development of the capacity to handle sudden influxes of a large number of patients by hospitals and emergency health facilities.

Source: WASHINGTON FAX, March 25, 2003