Johns Hopkins Biodefense Center to Receive $1 Million Grant

The Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health received a $1 million grant from the federal government to continue its work of fostering policies and programs dedicated to bioterrorism preparedness and prevention. The grant is contained in the Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education Appropriations Bill of FY2002, which provides $123.1 billion in discretionary funding for health and education programs. The $1 million grant is a continuation of federal funds provided to the Center each of the last three years.

"The Center's federal grant is due to the enormous efforts of Senator Barbara Mikulski and her congressional colleagues. Over the years, the Senator has been a visionary in recognizing the importance of the work done by Center to alert and prepare this nation to bioterrorist threats, which this year became all too real," says Alfred Sommer , MD, MHS, Dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies is a joint activity of the faculty of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Founded in 1997, its mission is to constructively influence the development of policy and programs that reduce the likelihood that biological weapons will be used against civilian populations and to minimize the illness and death that would result from their use should prevention fail. The Center has published a number of seminal articles on the key public health and medical issues related to bioterrorism. In June 2001, the Center co-sponsored the Dark Winter scenario at Andrews Air Force Base, during which former policy-makers reacted to a hypothetical smallpox attack on America.

"Senator Mikulski has long been an advocate for improving the nations preparedness to respond to disasters as evidenced by her successful efforts to help reform and improve the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Maryland's own emergency response network," explains Tara OToole, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies. "For the last several years, she has shown tremendous leadership in recognizing the threat bioterrorism poses and the need to prepare the ability of the public health and medical communities to respond to such attacks. Her support of the Center has been critical to enabling us to contribute to the nation's need for experience in this area," adds Dr. OToole.