Bioterrorism Exercise

On November 14, Wake County Human Services will be participating in "Triple Play," an ongoing bioterrorism exercise being conducted by the state Division of Public Health's Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (PHP&R). Human Services' role in the exercise is to establish a distribution site for drugs in response to an unspecified disease outbreak.

"This is an excellent opportunity to see how well our plans and expectations fit with what would really take place should we be called upon to administer large quantities of medication to our residents," Community Health Director Gibbie Harris said. "It's important to remember that this is not a test, but rather an exercise designed to determine strengths and weakness. Not only will Wake County benefit from this experience, so will all the other counties and hospitals across the state that are not participating."

The state is conducting the second phase of the Triple Play exercise Nov. 12-14. The first phase of the exercise took place in October, and the final phase will take place Dec. 10-12.

As a distribution site, Human Services will receive a simulated supply of drugs from the state to respond to a suspected biological attack. In keeping with the exercise, the state will have ordered and received the simulated drug shipment in a training "Push Package" from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through CDC's Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) program.

For this exercise Human Services is partnering with Raleigh Parks and Recreation and using the Lions Park Facility as the dispensing site. In an actual event Wake County would use Wake County high school gyms as dispensing sites.

"Push Packages represent the federal government's capacity to provide emergency medical supplies to state and local level health providers," Harris said. "Testing these resources is instrumental to our preparedness efforts. By the time this exercise is over, everyone involved should know if things work as planned – all the way from Wake County Human Services to the CDC."