Bioterrorism, from Anthrax to Weapons of Mass Extermination

Overview

Accidents in the USA after September 11th 2001, i.e. cases of anthrax, including several deathsof persons who had direct contact with parcels contaminated with anthrax spores, initiatedwriting a review on bioterrorism and its present challenges. The authors define bioterrorism,present a chronological outline of abuse of biological means, deal with the present situation,analyse differences of the epidemic process after use of biological warfare agents compared tousual settings, describe properties of biological agents and offer a list of potentially applicableagents of many insidious illnesses, among which as the four most important ones anthrax,smallpox, plague and botulism can be considered.

Key words:
bioterrorism - biological agents - anthrax - smallpox - plague - botulism.