The CDC four months ago started to “quietly” send hospitals packages of various antidotes that can be used in the event of a chemical attack, the Associated Press reports. The chem-pack program—which cost the CDC $56 million last year and is expected to have a $34 million price tag for 2004—aims to have supplies in every state within the next two years. Although CDC officials will not disclose which locations already have received the chem-packs, they did say that Boston and New York were early recipients because of the upcoming political conventions. Each chem-pack has supplies to treat about 1,000 patients, and state health departments have been tasked with deciding which hospitals will store the antidotes; the packs will be allocated based on each state’s population. The AP notes that the chem-packs can treat victims of terrorist attacks as well as patients involved in other chemical hazards, such as factory accidents. A spokesperson for the American Public Health Association states that the packs provide hospitals with “a ready cache of supplies [for] a large number of chemical victims,” noting that the contents will already be divided into correct dosages so that providers will not have to “worry about…overdosing or underdosing patients” (Neergaard, 7/14).
