Biological Weapons Defense: Infectious Disease and Counterbioterrorism

Prominent experts in biodefense research-many from the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases-authoritatively delineate the universe of scientific, medical, and legal issues facing the biodefense research community. Regarding medical countermeasures and decontamination, the authors describe the treatment and pathogenesis of a variety of established pathogens (anthrax, plague, smallpox, Brucellosis, Glanders, and Coxiella burnettii) and review what is known about the aerosol route of infection and decontamination processes. They also examine how to discover the presence of these agents, or other previously unknown biological weapons, and detail the ongoing efforts to counter these agents, including proteomic and genomic analysis as a gateway to better diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccinations, genotyping, and forensics. Additional chapters discuss the development and use technology to identify and characterize these infectious organisms, emerging threats, and the development of countermeasures.

Some 60 international researchers recognized as experts in biological weapons defense contribute to a text focused on measures for dealing with the possible deliberate causation of disease and on the underlying science. Twenty-five chapters are organized into sections on preparation and military support for a possible bioterrorism incident, medical countermeasures and decontamination, emerging threats and future preparation, and diagnostic development for biowarfare agents. A sampling of topics: Department of Defense capabilities for supporting bioterrorism response, pathogenesis by aerosol, medical defense against protein toxic weapons, genomic efforts with biodefense pathogens, genetic fingerprinting of biodefense pathogens for epidemiology and forensic investigation, and DNA-based diagnostic tests for detection and identification of biological weapons. The accompanying CD-ROM contains an eBook version of the text. For researchers, physicians, and policy makers. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR