By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Half of all U.S. states would run out of hospital beds within the first two weeks of a moderate flu pandemic and 47 states would run out if a bad one hit, according to a report issued on Tuesday. The report from the Trust for America's Health shows the United States is still poorly prepared for a pandemic, biological attack or similar disaster, despite five years of government warnings and emphasis on the issue. "I think the public believes that more is being done and that we are better prepared than we are," the group's executive director, Jeffrey Levi, told reporters in a telephone briefing. The report said that in the five years since the Sept. 11 attacks and deadly cases of anthrax being sent in the mail, the United States has endured public health threats ranging from Hurricane Katrina and to a life-threatening E. coli outbreak to a potential flu pandemic. But virtually all states still lack what is known as surge capacity in hospitals, meaning their hospital beds would fill up quickly if there were large numbers of casualties or sick people. The report said 40 states have a shortage of registered nurses. "We can have lots of hospital beds but if we don't have workers to take care of patients in those beds, we are still in a pretty bad state," Levi said. The Trust, a non-profit group that reports on and advocates for public health measures, measured the 50 states and Washington, D.C., on 10 measures of preparedness: * Ability to distribute from the Strategic National Stockpile of emergency vaccines, antidotes, and medical supplies * Capability to test for biological threats * Laboratory experts trained to test for a suspected outbreak of anthrax, plague or other threats * Year-round surveillance for pandemic influenza * Hospital bed capacity * Seasonal flu vaccinations * Pneumonia vaccinations * Compatibility with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Electronic Disease Surveillance System * Numbers of nurses * Public health budgets Only one state, Oklahoma, has an acceptable score on all 10 measures, according to the group. California, Iowa, Maryland, and New Jersey scored the lowest on the assessment. More than half of states scored six or less on the 10 measures and 12 and Washington, D.C., scored five or less, according to the report, published at http://healthyamericans.org/reports/bioterror06/. Federal money is being spent, the report said. The Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Act of 2002 provided nearly $1 billion a year in increased funds for federal and state preparedness for mass health hazards. On Saturday Congress passed a bill to improve preparedness, including additions to Project BioShield, a $5.6 billion program created in 2004 to speed vaccine and drug development. The bill also would designate the Department of Health and Human Services as the lead federal agency to respond to public health emergency -- something the Trust recommends. But the federal government, including President George W. Bush and Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt -- have made it repeatedly clear that states, local authorities and individuals must do the biggest share of preparing for disasters, natural or human-inflicted.
