Deck 9: Surveillance and Attribution Investigations

Question 1

What is plausible deniability?

Answer 1

It is the ability to believably deny knowledge or involvement in an event.

Question 2

Who conducts international investigations of suspected biological weapons use?

Answer 2

Many organizations can be involved, including the WHO, FAO, Interpol, and the OIE.

Question 3

What is the U.N. Secretary General's Mechanism?

Answer 3

It is a mechanism for countries to formally request an investigation into alleged chemical or biological weapons use and then for the Secretary General to carry out this investigation.

Question 4

What is the GOARN?

Question 5

What is "Amerithrax"?

Question 6

What is biosurveillance?

Question 7

What is surveillance without response?

Question 8

What is the purpose or early detection of a public health event?

Question 9

What are national priorities for disease surveillance?

Question 10

Name three policy directives that address biosurveillance.

Question 11

Which of the following refers to any method to detect and monitor a biological incident whether intentional or natural origin?

A) Biosurveillance
B) Situational awareness
C) Sentinel surveillance
D) National passive surveillance

Question 12

Which of the following refers to the ability to collect and analyze data in order to make appropriately informed predictions and decisions?

A) Biosurveillance
B) Situational awareness
C) Sentinel surveillance
D) National passive surveillance

Question 13

There are numerous surveillance programs that are disease or syndrome specific, most of which are operated by which agency?

A) National Institutes of Health
B) Department of Defense
C) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
D) Federal Emergency Response Agency

Question 14

The purpose of what program is to collect and analyze national near real-time data from a variety of sources, and through the use of advanced algorithms, provide rapid assessments of disease trends?

A) BioSense
B) Biowatch
C) ESSENCE
D) Crim-Epi

Question 15

The National Biosurveillance Integration Center (NBIC) relied heavily on which of the following, a federally funded but private surveillance system that filters media sources from around the world, to collate disease-related information?

A) Argus
B) ESSENCE
C) BioSense
D) Biowatch

Question 16

Detecting and responding to disease outbreaks and public health events are core component of the public health mission.

Question 17

Because the government recognizes the importance of biosurveillance and the United States is the country best suited to rapidly detect a public health event, the system that is currently place is extremely well coordinated.

Question 18

Most of the resources and responsibilities for public health activities, including disease surveillance, lie within the federal government.

Question 19

Because a biological threat can emerge anywhere, a weakness in the disease surveillance and response capacity in one part of the world is a potential risk to all nations.

Question 20

It can be almost impossible to differentiate between a naturally occurring disease and an intentional event.

Question 21

There have been calls for an integrated, functional domestic biosurveillance system, which was initiated by what piece of legislation?

A) USA PATRIOT Act
B) Public Health Improvement Act
C) Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act
D) Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act

Question 22

Which of the following is a joint effort led by the CDC and Federal Bureau of Investigation to train law enforcement and public health officials to work together to build relationships, share information, conduct joint threat assessments, and work together during outbreak investigations?

A) BioSense
B) BioWatch
C) ESSENCE
D) Crim-Epi

Question 23

One of the ways in which biological agents can be effective weapons is through which of the following-they can be extremely difficult to detect?

A) Biosurveillance
B) Situational awareness
C) Sentinel surveillance
D) Plausible deniability

Question 24

If an event is not naturally occurring, what will be required to determine the source of the agent and the perpetrator(s) of the attack?

A) Biosurveillance
B) Situational awareness
C) Attribution assessment
D) Plausible deniability

Question 25

Which of the following provides concepts to determine the molecular identity of the agent, if it can be linked to a source, and if so, how precisely it can be linked?

A) Synthetic biology
B) Forensic biology
C) Microbial forensics
D) Molecular biology

Question 26

Strong surveillance will support the timely recognition of the emergence of relatively rare or previously undescribed pathogens in specific countries.

Question 27

Detection of an unusual disease event may start with an astute clinician, who is able to discern that something is different/unusual/threatening about a particular patient or cluster of patients and alerts authorities.

Question 28

While surveys and surveillance of emerging infections, unusual events, and potential public health emergencies are essential to the public health community, it is the surveillance of endemic diseases that most inform public health preparedness and are the situations in which rapid detection is essential for saving lives.

Question 29

Understanding the baseline health conditions of a population allows decision makers to set priorities, design research programs, and identify short- and long-term public health risks.

Question 30

BioSense is an environmental monitoring program operated by the DHS, with partners at CDC and EPA.