A new Google tool that tracks user searches for "flu symptoms" has given rise to a new early warning system for fast-spreading flu outbreaks that test indicate may be able to detect regional outbreaks of the flu a week to 10 days before they are reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The author looks at possible defensive measures, including expanded bio-surveillance, against the growing threat of agro-terrorism.

Concerns about bioterrorism and infectious diseases have prompted Boston and a growing number of other cities to start electronic tracking systems to quickly detect outbreaks. By compiling data from emergency rooms, poison control centers and other sources, ``syndromic surveillance'' can both serve as an early warning system and help eliminate false alarms, health officials say.

severe lack of funding for surveillance and front-line defenses has left the World Health Organization unprepared to deal with a global bioterrorist attack involving an agent such as smallpox, according to a senior official who monitors disease outbreaks for the agency.

Citing the ongoing outbreak of a deadly respiratory illness, U.S. senators proposed spending $150 million to strengthen the world's radar system for detecting disease outbreaks.

New York City has developed a disease outbreak early warning system, dubbed the Syndromic Surveillance System, which public health experts call the most advanced early warning system in the country. Amid growing national concern about bioterrorism and the spread of exotic diseases, a number of cities have become interested in this field, and many have called New York, hoping to learn how it is done.

The United States and the rest of the world need to do a lot more to protect people against microbes like the one causing a mysterious and deadly form of pneumonia, as well as more traditional foes like influenza and tuberculosis, according to a panel of experts from the U.S. Institute of Medicine.

The authors warn that Saddam Hussein is capable of unleashing 'biological Armageddon' if trapped into a corner. They argue that the U.S. can defend against biological blackmail by boosting resources for disease detection networks and by training and placing more intelligence agents knowledgeable in this type of warfare throughout the world.

Public health experts and computer scientists have been developing software for more rapid surveillance and detection of outbreaks, partly to respond to the threat of biological terrorism.

The University of Southern California School of Engineering has received $1.5 million research grant from the National Science Foundation to create swarms of microscopic robots to monitor potentially dangerous microorganisms in the ocean. "With increasing urban runoff, sewage spills and blooms of harmful algae off heavily populated coastal areas, it is very important to be able to sense, and then identify, particular ocean microorganisms quickly," said Ari Requicha, a USC professor of computer science and the project's principal investigator. "The quicker we learn that a pathogen is present in the water, the sooner we can warn people and begin action to correct the situation."