RT Book, Section A1 Suyama, Joe A2 Tintinalli, Judith E. A2 Ma, O. John A2 Yealy, Donald M. A2 Meckler, Garth D. A2 Stapczynski, J. Stephan A2 Cline, David M. A2 Thomas, Stephen H. SR Print(0) ID 1188717409 T1 Bioterrorism T2 Tintinalli's Emergency Medicine: A Comprehensive Study Guide, 9e YR 2020 FD 2020 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 9781260019933 LK accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1188717409 RD 2024/03/29 AB Bioterrorism is the release, or the threat of a release, of a biologic agent among a civilian population for the purpose of causing illness or death in humans, animals, or agriculture that results in the spread of fear and disruption of daily life. Such an occurrence is a low-probability but high-impact event. In the past century, the specter of bioterrorism was largely monitored by concerned government and military leaders, but in 2001, civilian emergency responders and healthcare institutions in the United States were thrust into the medical, psychological, and public health response to a real bioterrorist incident with very little training or preparation. In 2001, the U.S. Postal Service was used to deliver letters containing spores of Bacillus anthracis. The ensuing environmental contamination and health impact was widespread, resulting in 22 diagnosed cases of anthrax infections: 11 cases of inhalational and 11 cases of cutaneous anthrax.1 Five patients died as a direct result of this intentional release of anthrax spores that was determined to have unnatural particle size characteristics.2 Communities on the eastern seaboard of the United States were severely affected, with thousands of people receiving prophylaxis for anthrax.3 Fear then spread across the nation, as concern increased for a wider delivery of anthrax. In this century, there is growing angst in the scientific and medical communities regarding the potential for biologic agents to be modified using now common gene-editing tools such as CRISPR, resulting in the creation of organisms with an even greater potential to cause harm and spread fear.4