Kauai bioterror drill
needs volunteers

Six hundred volunteers are needed to help Kauai health officials test a bioterrorism preparedness drive-through clinic from 10 a.m. to noon Thursday at Vidinha Stadium, Lihue.

They don't have to leave their cars, said Dr. David Lane, Kauai District Health Office bioterrorism preparedness planner.

"Everything will be simulated as if it was a real clinic," he said. The volunteers will drive through the clinic, fill out forms, be evaluated for medicine and receive the fake medicine, he said.

The mock clinic will test the island's capability to distribute medicine and supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile in a bioterrorism emergency.

The exercise is the first drive-through model testing the Strategic National Stockpile in the United States. It's called BTEX Kauai 2005 E Ho'omakaukau No Ka Maluhia (Kauai Prepares for Safety).

More than 60 Department of Health employees have been trained to work in the clinic, said Toni Torres, clinic incident commander. The staff will usher volunteers driving through the mock clinic.

The Strategic National Stockpile, a program of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, consists of medicines and medical supplies stored in 13 secret locations across the country.

They will be delivered within 12 hours of an approved request from a state in event of a bioterrorism attack or other health emergency.

Experts from Alaska, Arizona and New York and other evaluators will review the exercise and results used to revise plans as necessary.

Working with the Department of Health on the exercise are state and Kauai civil defense officials, Kauai Police and Fire departments, local hospitals, the Kauai County Branch of the American Red Cross, the Kauai CERT Team, Transportation Security Administration, Lihue Airport Fire Station and the state Department of Transportation.

Lane said: "Our continuing goal is to improve our island's ability to prevent and respond to a bioterrorism event. BTEX Kauai 2005 gives us the opportunity to show the public what we're doing to prepare and how we plan to keep Kauaians safe."

The first 600 volunteers who drive to Vidinha Stadium, entering from Kapule Highway, during the exercise will receive $5 vouchers good at Kmart, Kukui Grove, Star Market, Foodland or Ishihara Market.

For more information, call Jason McKnight at the Kauai District Health Office, 241-3555.