Terrorism and public health: the little known equation.

Sitting in our offices early in the morning of September 11, 2001, we, like many across the world, watched with incredulity the twin terrorist strikes on the World Trade Centre. Riveted to the television screen, we witnessed the beginnings of a nightmare whose images will likely remain with us for a long time. September 11, and the events that followed, changed our assumptions of world terrorism and, at the same time, redefined public vulnerabilities to weapons of mass destruction using chemical, biological or radionuclear agents (CBRN) to disrupt social infrastructures and institutions by threatening life and limb as well as our sense of security.