Public health threat surveillance system

#1. Field of the Invention

#The present invention is related to toxic substance analysis and reporting and more particularly to a system for detecting, collecting, analyzing and automatically reporting analysis results, especially for reporting biotoxins analysis results on an available public land mobile network.

#2. Background Description

#The foregoing and other objects, aspects and advantages will be better understood from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention with reference to the drawings, in which:

#FIG. 1 shows an example of a preferred embodiment distributed bio-hazard detection system according to the present invention;

#FIG. 2 shows an example of data flow from a biosensor in a sensing device towards a respective processing center;

#Turning now to the drawings and more particularly FIG. 1 shows an example of a preferred embodiment distributed public health threat surveillance system 100 according to the present invention. Remote devices 102, 104, 106, 108, 110, 112 are continuously collecting information related to the presence of bio-hazardous agents, in particular bio-toxins and, reporting the detection of any such agent or bio-toxin contemporaneously to a Health Alert Processing Center (HAPC) 114 for further processing of an appropriate response. Accordingly, each HAPC 104 receives, collects and aggregates sensor data from sensors located in distributed devices 102, 104, 106, 108, 110, 112. Although any device capable of communication with the HAPC 114 (e.g., over a public land mobile network (PLMN) or its equivalent) may be employed, preferably the devices 102, 104, 106, 108, 110 are small portable devices that may be carried easily by a person. Examples of such portable devices include what is known as a personal digital assistant (PDA) 102, a cellular phone 104, a wrist watch with wireless communication 106, a special monitoring device 108 (e.g., lacking other well known and convenient human friendly features), or a notebook computer/wireless tablet 110. Larger devices 112 such as may fit into a suitcase or larger (e.g., a desktop computer) may also be included, provided they are capable of communication with the HAPC 114.

#Each of the preferred devices 102, 104, 106, 108, 110, 112 includes a sensor, e.g., 120, for receiving bio-toxins. Preferably, the sensor 120 is attached to or embedded in the device 102, 104, 106, 108, 110, 112 and automatically sensing or “sniffing” bio-toxins from the atmosphere. However, the sensors 120 may be single use sensors that are provided with a sample of suspected material and, then, inserted into or attached to the particular device 102, 104, 106, 108, 110, 112. Numerous usable such state of the art bio-toxin sensors such as Bead Array Counter (BARC) or a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detector are described in Aston, Christopher, “Biological Warfare Canaries,” IEEE Spectrum, October, 2001, p. 35. In particular, BARCs are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,981,297 to Baselt which is incorporated herein by reference. Also, sensors 120 may be included that detect the presence of other non-biological agents (e.g., chemical or nuclear warfare agents) in addition to, or instead of, bio-toxic or bio-hazardous agents. Preferably, the device 102, 104, 106, 108, 110, 112 performs at least an initial analysis on received material to determine whether it is a bio-toxin and, if so determined, automatically transmits information regarding the presence and the nature of the bio-toxin. In addition, preferably, each of the individual devices 102, 104, 106, 108, 110, 112 includes the capability of determining the positional location of the device, e.g., an embedded global positioning system (GPS) or, a triangulation capability.

#As noted above, the U.S. public health system and primary healthcare providers must be prepared to address varied biological agents, including pathogens that are rarely seen in the United States. The U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) has identified a number of possible bio-threats as listed in three categories and representing three priority levels as represented in Table 1. 1 TABLE 1 Pathogens priority level Category A Category B Category C Anthrax Brucellosis Hantaviruses Botulism Epsilon toxin of Tuberculosis Clostridium perfringens Plague Glanders Nipah virus Smallpox Q fever Tickborne encephalitis viruses Tularemia Staphylococcus Tickborne hemorrhagic enterotoxin B fever viruses Viral hemorrhagic Recin toxin from Ricinus Yellow fever fevers Communis