Experts: U.S. medicine unprepared for biological terrorism

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- From David Ensor CNN National Security Correspondent

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. health-care system is not well equipped to handle a large-scale biological terror attack, emergency care experts told senators on Thursday.

Dr. Stephen Cantrill of the Denver Health Medical Center and other witnesses told senators that hospitals lack the "surge capacity" to take on thousands of potential casualties in the event of biological terrorism.

"A true biological weapon attack would not be handled well," Cantrill told a Senate hearing on terrorism. "The lay public have abundant faith" in the medical community's abilities, but Cantrill said "they would be disappointed."

Thursday's testimony came on the third and final day of the Senate hearing.

Sens. Judd Gregg, R-New Hampshire, and Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, said they would look into whether additional resources can be found to address the problem.

Gen. Bruce Lawlor, head of the U.S. military command in charge of providing help to civilian agencies in the event of such an attack, said the military does not have much excess hospital capacity in case of an attack with mass casualties.

Lawlor said, however, that there are National Guard units trained in biological agent detection, and he said decontamination units from the Marines "are well trained and ready for any eventuality."