New tools for Both the City & County of Honolulu and the state Health Department should have the capability within weeks to do quick, conclusive DNA testing of suspect substances to see if they contain anthrax or other bioterror agents.
anthrax tests
due in isles
The city and the state will use
equipment for DNA testing
of suspicious substancesBy Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.comThe city and state testing capabilities will add two more options to the Navy lab that is now the fastest way to check for anthrax in Hawaii.
It was the Navy lab that assured Honolulu Tuesday afternoon that a letter that gave two positive readings for anthrax in preliminary field tests by city workers did not contain the potentially deadly bacteria.
"The city needs to be able to have the capability -- and our plan is to make it mobile capability -- of doing DNA testing in the field to determine whether there is a positive anthrax release or not," said Mayor Jeremy Harris.
Its existing equipment gives the city ability to do a "quick, presumptive test" to determine if further investigation needs to be done, Harris said.
Confirming the presence of anthrax within hours is crucial to begin treatment. "If you administer antibiotics shortly after exposure, it is treated very readily," state Health Director Bruce Anderson said.
At a meeting between Anderson and Harris yesterday, "we agreed to work together to assure that the state and county develop complementary programs and reinforce one another's needs as we address emerging issues," Anderson said.
The DNA tester the city will be using will be portable and like the ones the Navy uses at its lab, Harris said. The $60,000 machine, made by Idaho Technology Inc. of Salt Lake City was ordered since the Sept. 11 attacks and city personnel are being trained now by the Navy to operate the equipment, Harris said.
The state's DNA tester is already at its lab in Pearl City and its operators are fully trained, Anderson said. They are waiting for the delivery of chemical reagents needed to conduct the test, which should arrive by mid-November, he said.
Anderson said the state's equipment was ordered in July as part of the Health Department's ongoing upgrade of its lab to deal with bioterror threats. It will be the same kind used by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, he said.
The cost of the equipment was not available yesterday.
"The DNA test is considered confirmatory," Anderson said, while the field testing units the city has used "are a tool that is useful to first responders" who must secure a site to prevent the spread of exposure.
The state lab will continue to make cultures of samples of suspect substances as another check of what they are dealing with, but that process takes at least 24 hours, Anderson said.
Both the city and state felt it was important to have the quicker DNA-testing independent of the Navy, which might not always be immediately available for civilian work.
The state Health Department would decide who should be treated and how if a biological agent is detected.
Meanwhile, Harris said the city has loaned Maui and Hawaii counties each one of Honolulu's 12 field-testing units until they can get their own.
Star-Bulletin reporter Gordon Pang contributed to this report.
