Pharmacist Bina dispenses drugs during anthrax scare
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff reporter
Chris Bina, son of Dean and Pat Bina, rural Marion, is a pharmacist in Washington, D.C. The 1987 Centre High School graduate works just two blocks from the U.S. Capitol.
Bina is chief pharmacist for the Federal Bureau of Prisons and also is a commissioned officer for the Public Health Service.
After anthrax was discovered in mail in the Hart office building last fall, a mass effort began to protect people against possible exposure to the virus.
Bina received a call from the Office of Emergency Management. He and several other pharmacists met with people who had worked in the building or had made contact there and presented facts about the antibiotic Cipro.
Over the course of a week, the pharmacists distributed Cipro to approximately 6,000 people.
The following week, Bina was called to D.C. General Hospital to administer Cipro to postal workers.
He said it was amazing to see how the anthrax scare branched out to affect many people. For example, Federal Express workers who served the area also needed protection.
Bina said more than 700 commissioned officers were deployed during that time.
He and his wife, Christine, live at Rockville, Md. and have two little girls, four-year-old McKenzie and one-week-old Kayley.
When working as a commissioned officer for the Public Health Service, Bina wears a uniform much like military personnel do. He is "on-call" at all times, and must be ready to respond to emergency situations that arise from time to time throughout the country, including weather-related disasters.
The seed for the Public Health Service was planted in 1798 when Congress passed legislation allowing tax money to be used to pay physicians to care for sick and injured merchant seamen at marine hospitals along the east coast.
In 1870, the hospitals were placed under central control at Washington, D.C., and the Marine Hospital Service (MHS) was established under a surgeon general.
Beginning in 1889, physicians in the MHS were required to be uniformed.
During the 1900s, uniformed personnel were expanded to include dentists, sanitarians, pharmacists, nurses, scientists, and other health professionals.
MHS activities also expanded to include control of infectious disease and, beginning in 1891, processing of immigrants to prevent disease from entering the country.
In 1912, the name was changed to Public Health Service. The agency is under control of the Department of Health and Human Services.
