Bio-Terror Drill

Published on June 18, 2015

The Lewis County Public Health Agency will conduct a mass antibiotics-dispensing drill next Wednesday to test the departments’ readiness should a biohazard emergency strike.

Ashley Waite, immunization and lead poisoning-prevention coordinator at Public Health, said the scenario Public Health will be depicting is if anthrax was released in the U.S. as an act of bioterrorism. Should anthrax be released in the country, Public Health would have 48 hours to give antibiotics to the entire county, which has a population of about 27,000 people.

“We do these drills for community involvement so they know what to expect in an emergency like this,” Mrs. Waite said. The drill will be held at Public Health’s point of distribution at Lowville Academy and Central School in the main gymnasium from 1 to 3 p.m.

Mrs. Waite said the goal is to go through about 50 people every 15 minutes, with a goal of seeing 336 people in a two-hour period.