Bioterrorism

Public Policy

Public health emergencies can emerge naturally as outbreaks or pandemics (such as SARS or pandemic influenza), or they can emerge deliberately through bioterrorism (such as the 2001 anthrax attacks). Learn about IDSA’s public policy initiatives on Emerging Infections & Biothreats.

Other Bioterrorism Resources

• The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota
• How to Consider Category A Agents in the Etiologic Diagnosis of Common Clinical Syndromes (PDF, 1 pg)

• Who To Contact in the Event of a Bioterrorist Threat  
  CDC currently recommends that health care professionals contact their local and/or state health department. This link will take you to a list of health department websites and emergency notification procedures for use by health officials and healthcare providers.
• Guidance for Notification of and Interaction with Law Enforcement Officials in the Event of a Bioterrorist Incident 
  Recommendations from CDC
• Sentinel (Level A) Laboratory Guidelines 
  ASM protocols for the detection of microorganisms that might be suspected as bioterrorist agents
• Radiological Emergencies 
  Information from CDC's National Center for Environmental Health
• Emergency Preparedness & Response: Bioterrorism  CDC resources about bioterrorist agents

Slide Sets, Videos, Images and Teaching Tools for ID Specialists

• CDC Training & Education 
  Training and education materials from CDC related to emergency preparedness and response. Includes webcasts, videos, slides and education modules on many topics related to bioterrorism, chemical terrorism and general emergency response.
• Bioterrorism: Are You Prepared?  
  UCLA Center for Public Health Disasters; PowerPointCovers presentations of major biological warfare agents using patient scenarios with accompanying script that makes it useful for independent learning. Choose "BT Presentation" from the top menu and register to download the file. 
• Images of individual agents 
  CDC Public Health Image Library Query by individual agent name (e.g. smallpox, anthrax, etc). Some pictures black and white, some color.
  • If you hear hoofbeats . . . consider these zebras  (PDF, 1 pg) 
    Helpful teaching tool from the Minnesota Department of Health