Huge `Antibiotic` Shipment Delivered for Calif. Bioterrorism Drill
Nov. 18--San bernardino-- At a secluded San Bernardino County warehouse, a 53-foot tractor-trailer delivered 17 pallets of pretend antibiotics today for what officials called the largest mock bioterrorism drill in the state's history.
Those "medicines" will be delivered Thursday to first-responders and hospitals, for employee use, in the morning and in the afternoon. There will be a practice distribution to the "public" -- at the Chino Neighborhood Activity Center -- which will include actors pretending to have some of the early symptoms of anthrax.
The Southern California Regional Exercise for Anthrax Disaster Incidents, called SoCal READI, for short, began about 8 a.m. with a pretend spraying of aerosolized anthrax along the coast of San Diego and Orange counties, said Dr. Mawell Ohikhuare, health officer for San Bernardino County.
Unprecedented SoCal READI drill involves the California Department of Public Health, health departments and other agencies in the counties of San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange, San Diego, Imperial, Inyo, Mono, Ventura, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. Health departments in the cities of Long Beach and Pasadena area also participating, state officials say.
The bacteria that causes anthrax would be one of the biological agents most likely used in a bioterror attack, says the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Inhaled anthrax is the most deadly form of the disease, CDC officials say.
Copyright 2015 - San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.
