Detecting bioterror attacks gets creative

Counting coughs and tracking OJ sales part of unique defense

Public health officials have developed an odd interest lately in the mundane and arcane.

Epidemiologists are tracking orange juice sales at the local Safeway and poring over school attendance data. They're mapping every case of the sniffles they can find and watching surveillance videos to count how many times people sneeze.

The idea is that a sudden spike in everyday aches, pains, sniffles and coughs could signal the earliest stages of a health commissioner's worst nightmare -- a massive biological attack. So in the last few years, an increasing number of health departments have started collecting electronic data from hospital emergency rooms, pharmacies and other sources in an effort to gauge the overall level of illness in the population.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/11/04...rror.alert.ap/