Bioterrorism: Health sector alertness

Bioterrorism and Public Health

Bioterrorism can be described as the use of a microorganism with the deliberate intent of causing infection in order to achieve certain goals. With increased availability of biologic agents and the technical information required to produce them, bioterrorism may become the weapon of choice in the future. The implications for public health in the event of infection of even small numbers of peopl...

health, wellbeing, and alertness during the shift

Objectives-The generally agreed view is that there is no ideal shift system, and that most systems will have both advantages and disadvantages. As such, attention has been placed on trying to identify good and bad features of shift systems, with a view to minimising the possible ill health as a consequence of shiftwork. The present study focuses on the duration of the shift and looks at the imp...

Bioterrorism as a public health threat.

The threat of bioterrorism, long ignored and denied, has heightened over the past few years. Recent events in Iraq, Japan, and Russia cast an ominous shadow. Two candidate agents are of special concern--smallpox and anthrax. The magnitude of the problems and the gravity of the scenarios associated with release of these organisms have been vividly portrayed by two epidemics of smallpox in Europe...

Bioterrorism, the public's health, and the law.

Bioterrorism, public health, and human rights.

It is unnecessary and counterproductive to sacrifice basic human rights to respond to bioterrorism. Constructive public health legislation, which must be federal, cannot be carefully drafted under panic conditions. When it is, like the "model act," it will predictably rely on broad, arbitrary state authority exercised without public accountability. Public health should resist reverting to its n...