Anthrax Bioterrorism: Prevention, Diagnosis and Management Strategies
- *Corresponding Author:
- Robert A Fowler
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
University of Toronto
2075 Bayview Avenue, Room D478
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M4N 3M5
E-mail: [email protected]
Received Date: December 11, 2010; Accepted Date: April 21, 2011; Published Date: April 23, 2011
Citation: Fowler RA, Shafazand S (2011) Anthrax Bioterrorism: Prevention, Diagnosis and Management Strategies. J Bioterr Biodef 2:107. doi: 10.4172/2157-2526.1000107
Copyright: © 2011 Fowler RA, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Bacillus anthracis is one of a limited number of biological agents capable of causing death and disease in sufficient numbers to devastate an urban setting. In October 2001, reports of American patients with inhalational anthrax reacquainted the public with this ancient disease and introduced the harsh reality of a bioterrorist act. Cutaneous disease, gastrointestinal anthrax and inhalational disease are the known clinical manifestations of anthrax. Inhalational anthrax has an untreated mortality of nearly 100% and is the primary cause of death for an exposed and unprotected population. Vaccination affords a high degree of primary prevention and multiple effective antibiotics exist for both disease prevention and treatment. In this article, we will discuss the costs and effectiveness of prevention strategies, diagnosis, and therapy of bioterrorism related anthrax.