Henderson D A
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Emerg Infect Dis. 1998 Jul-Sep;4(3):488-92. doi: 10.3201/eid0403.980340.
The threat of bioterrorism, long ignored and denied, has heightened over the past few years. Recent events in Iraq, Japan, and Russia cast an ominous shadow. Two candidate agents are of special concern--smallpox and anthrax. The magnitude of the problems and the gravity of the scenarios associated with release of these organisms have been vividly portrayed by two epidemics of smallpox in Europe during the 1970s and by an accidental release of aerosolized anthrax from a Russian bioweapons facility in 1979. Efforts in the United States to deal with possible incidents involving bioweapons in the civilian sector have only recently begun and have made only limited progress. Only with substantial additional resources at the federal, state, and local levels can a credible and meaningful response be mounted. For longer-term solutions, the medical community must educate both the public and policy makers about bioterrorism and build a global consensus condemning its use.
长期以来被忽视和否认的生物恐怖主义威胁在过去几年中有所加剧。伊拉克、日本和俄罗斯最近发生的事件投下了不祥的阴影。两种候选病原体尤其令人担忧——天花和炭疽。20世纪70年代欧洲发生的两次天花疫情以及1979年俄罗斯一个生物武器设施意外释放雾化炭疽，生动地描绘了这些问题的严重程度以及与这些生物体释放相关情景的严重性。美国在民用部门应对可能涉及生物武器的事件的努力直到最近才开始，而且进展有限。只有在联邦、州和地方各级投入大量额外资源，才能做出可信且有意义的应对。对于长期解决方案，医学界必须就生物恐怖主义问题对公众和政策制定者进行教育，并建立全球共识谴责其使用。
