Journal of Bioterrorism & Biodefense
Open Access

Review Article

On the Front Line of Biodefense: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Support to International Biological Risk Management Regimes

Dana Perkins^* and Kathleen Danskin

US Department of Health and Human Services Washington, DC, USA

*Corresponding Author:

Dana Perkins, Ph.D.
US Dept. of Health and Human Services
Washington, DC, USA
E-mail: dana.perkins@hhs.gov

Received Date: June 22, 2011; Accepted Date: August 03, 2011; Published Date: August 05, 2011

Citation: Perkins D, Danskin K (2011) On the Front Line of Biodefense: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Support to International Biological Risk Management Regimes. J Bioterr Biodef 2:111. doi:10.4172/2157-2526.1000111

Copyright: © 2011 Perkins D, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is supporting the U.S. Department of State in its public diplomacy demarches related to the Biological Weapons Convention and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540. The tenets of these major international instruments are implemented through a statutory, regulatory, and policy framework on biological risk management; an effective oversight of biodefense research and development programs; and international partnerships and collaborations toward countering biological threats, whether natural, accidental, or deliberate in nature. These activities illustrate the increasing importance of health to the U.S. national security and foreign policy. Raising the awareness of public health and science communities about the obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540 is a critical element in their implementation and in preventing the misuse of scientific and technological advances.