بیوتروریسم، تهدیدی برای سلامت عمومی

Background: Today, Enemyattack don’t limit to only military weapons. Most of countries move into novel techniques in wars. Bioterrorism is the intentional use of micro-organisms to bring about ill effects or death to humans, livestock, or crops. Increasing of Knowledge about bioterrorism is one of the passive defense applications. Materials and Methods: The aim of this research was to study of history and methods of bioterrorism for better control of it in probable soft war. Basic data collected by these keywords: biologic agents - biologic wars - biologic weapons - soft war - general health - passive defense - bioterrorism, in literature. Finally, all data were analyzed by medical knowledge of authors (specialized in internal medicine). Results: Ancient evidence reported that in pre-Christian era. Progression in human knowledge results in biological and genetic agents' usage in bioterrorism. The most frequent agents are: bacillus anthracis – plague – tularemia - hemorrhagic fevers and botulism. Most frequent symptoms are: respiratory tract symptoms -hemorrhagic fevers - meningitis and encephalitis - Flaccid paralyses - fever syndromes with rash - diarrheal syndromes. Conclusion: There are no similarities between clinical presentations of organisms or toxins belonging to specific microbial families. It is important for the physician to cope with an unusual disease. Quick referral to the emergency department, leading to early diagnosis; and rapid notification of the Ministry of Health is necessary. All these, and the institution of appropriate measures, will ultimately contribute to the survival of individual patients.