Training called key for finding biological terrorism

States and medical residency programs should require bioterrorism training for doctors, he said.

The study, published yesterday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, involved 631 doctors, mostly medical residents, or doctors in training, in 30 internal medicine residency programs in 16 states and in Washington, D.C.

The doctors took a first test, completed an online course, and then took another test.

On the first test, half the doctors misdiagnosed botulism; 84 percent misdiagnosed plague. A case of routine chickenpox was misdiagnosed by 42 percent of the doctors as smallpox.

''We've got a dangerous gap here and we need a much clearer strategic game plan," said Shelley Hearne, executive director of Trust for America's Health, which tracks the states' preparation for biological terrorism.

While it is encouraging that the Department of Homeland Security created the post of chief medical officer, Hearne said, funding for training remains a problem.

In fiscal 2005, Congress approved $252 million for a line item called ''health professions training activities" in the Health Resources and Services Administration. That line item was eliminated in President Bush's proposed 2006 budget, Hearne said.