Bioterrorism: An Emerging Global Health Threat

The threat of bioterrorism has heightened over the past few years, given the history of asymmetric warfare. This threat posed by biological weapons is especially challenging, given the unique characteristics of these agents coupled with the dearth of knowledge in this particular subject by health care first responders. As the history of biowarfare has shown, exposure to even minute quantities of a biological agent can be fatal. As such, health care first responders will encounter the brunt of these cases. Therefore, it is imperative that health care first responders who provide emergency medical services be knowledgeable on the detection, diagnoses and response to biological agents so as to minimize adverse health effects and prevent fatalities. Information contained in this article includes overall awareness of select agents of bioterrorism and brief clinical characteristics of the most common and most likely bioterrorism agents known as Tier 1 select agents with the purpose of better preparing health care first responders in the event of a potential bioterrorism attack.