In a surprising and somewhat unprecedented decision, the staff of the Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies (CCBS) announced its departure from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health last week.
The 20-person staff will create a similar institute at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center called the Center for Biosecurity. The new Center will be keep its offices in Baltimore and offices in Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh.
"The faculty members and the administrative staff at the JHCC have taken other positions with the [University of Pittsburgh], and that's effective Nov. 1," said Tim Parsons, Associate Director of Public Affairs in the JHSPH Office of Communications.
The Center was involved in policy development, and their mission was to advocate and encourage biodefense planning in the country. "They were instrumental in doing that," Parsons said, "and by Sept. 11, the country had gotten the message."
The move dealt a blow to Hopkins' attempts to make the Center into a clearinghouse for bioterror information.
The previous day, the Hopkins School of Public Health announced the creation of the Institute for Global Health and Security, which will "encompass biodefense programs and activities already under way" including the former Center.
According to Parsons, the School of Public Health has been in discussion for over a year on how to consolidate its biodefense and public health activities and the departure of the Center's staff presented an opportunity for the creation of the new institute.
"It wasn't because we couldn't incorporate those activities before," he said. "It just seemed like a good time to go forward with that plan."
"[The School of Public Health has] held seminars for terrorism preparation, dirty bombs, [etc.]," said Parsons.
"The new Institute for Global Health and Security will be an umbrella organ for all our biodefense and public health preparedness-related activities that we will be doing in the future, including training [and] vaccine development work. This new initiative is not just for bioterrorism, but other public health concerns [like] water safety, environmental hazards [as well as] biological terrorists."
In a statement issued by Drs. Tara O'Toole, Thomas Inglesby and D.A. Henderson, directors of the Center, cited reasons for leaving.
Among them was an "unusually high degree of integration" between the University of Pittsburgh's 19 hospitals and HMOs, and the linkages to public health agencies outside the university.
They also cited university's reputation as a sound research base and the strong source of NIH funding; and its central role in health care in western Pennsylvania, which will allow for the design and implementation of models for biodefense measures that can be applied on a large scale.
The directors felt that this merger would generate "a university based, integrated program of biodefense policy and practice" in keeping with their own vision of greater involvement in biodefense research and implementation by university systems and so accepted this unsolicited proposal from the University of Pittsburgh.
Parsons explained that disease surveillance and communication between health care agencies of all kinds is critical to successful public health and that, "the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is a proven ground of those activities. We wish the people who are leaving the best in their new endeavor."
