Carol C Walters

FDA Approval of the Joint Biological Agent Identification and Diagnostic System: Implications for the Future Carol C Walters

In 1999 the AF Medical Service (AFMS) successfully field-tested its first deployable biowarfare (BW) agent testing capability, and by early 2001 had created twelve deployable Biological Augmentation Teams. These teams were trained to use the blossoming technology of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in detecting four BW agents within a matter of hours. This was revolutionary, as traditional microbiological techniques took from 18 hours to days to produce a result. Even more exciting was the fact that a "delicate" technology such as PCR could be ruggedized and perform successfully in a deployed environment. Since those first steps in 1999, the AFMS has come a long way in fielded BW agent testing capability. Over these seven seemingly long years, the BW testing systems have steadily improved, to the point that a jointly acquired system is now being fielded for testing ten BW agents.