The Bioterrorism Sourcebook

Shock Journal

This is a comprehensive but concise guideline for prevention, identification, and treatment of bioterrorism threats, primarily from the health care worker's perspective....This book takes on the tremendous task of creating a concise yet complete reference for health care workers and public officials; overall, it succeeds. This is especially critical given the dynamic and expansive subject of bioterrorism.

From The Critics

Reviewer: Malford Tyson Pillow, MD(University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine)
Description: This is a comprehensive but concise guideline for prevention, identification, and treatment of bioterrorism threats, primarily from the healthcare worker's perspective.
Purpose: The book is intended as a "one-stop source of clinical and public health guidance" for any frontline healthcare and public health workers dealing with the immediate and long-term needs of victims of biological, chemical, nuclear, or radiologic events. It attempts to integrate a vast amount of information into a detailed yet easy to use reference to heighten bioterrorism preparedness. This is an extremely useful endeavor because, as the book points out, there are very few references for bioterrorism response that combine the various and dynamic aspects that the frontline healthcare worker will need to quickly and effectively respond to bioterrorism threats. Overall, the book meets the authors' stated objectives in providing a concise, detailed book that is useful both as a teaching text and as a focused, quick reference for on-the-spot diagnosis and management of bioterrorism threats.
Audience: The stated audience includes medical students, physicians, public officials, and other healthcare workers that will be on the frontline of bioterrorism response on the local level. However, the book more effectively addresses concerns of healthcare workers and physicians than those of public officials due to its format and focus on initial patient management.
Features: The book's engaging and informational format will be familiar to many medical students and physicians. Many chapters on specific agents start with a clinical vignette and then outline key diagnosis and management issues. The book is designed such that these same key diagnosis and management points can be easily and quickly referenced in table format. Multiple black-and-white pictures throughout the book detail the presentation and progression of many disease processes. The book could be improved with color pictures to aid differentiating various types of rashes and lesions seen with various agents. The selected bibliography acts as a further resource by outlining various Internet sources that can be referenced by chapter or section.
Assessment: This book takes on the tremendous task of creating a concise yet complete reference for healthcare workers and public officials and, overall, it succeeds. This is especially critical given the dynamic and expansive subject of bioterrorism.