CALGARY - Calgary Laboratory Services is preparing for the possibility of bioterrorism during the G-8 summit in Kananaskis.
CLS has written an extensive manual detailing emergency response procedures that will be available across the city.
Dr. Deidre Church, head of microbiology, says they've been stockpiling supplies for testing and scheduling extra staff for the event.
She says laboratory staff have been trained to look for and handle biologically hazardous samples like anthrax and plague.
"Really in terms of being front-line responders and alerting everyone in terms of the clinical circumstance, I'm quite confident the system is efficient and ready to detect that."
But Church says they are not prepared for large scale attacks.
"If we're talking about huge numbers of people being infected on a very, very large scale versus one or two trickling into the system, that's a much different scenario."
Church says staffing levels in Calgary labs have been elevated for the two to three weeks after the G-8 summit. Biological diseases such as anthrax have an incubation period of at least four days.
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