Medical intervention in the biological attack with Bacillus anthracis

Abstract

The biological agent most likely to be used as a biological weapon is Bacillus anthracis, which causes the anthrax infectious disease. During the Cold War, it was present in large quantities in the military arsenals of some states, and at the beginning of the 21st century was used in a series of small bioterrorist attacks. In case of occurrence of events using Bacillus anthracis, urgent and adequate qualitative and quantitative response measures are needed to manage the consequences of the attack and to reduce the effects on public health. These include complex and well-coordinated activities to ensure medical intervention for the prophylaxis, treatment and recovery of patients. General prophylaxis is achieved by vaccination, individual and collective CBRN protection, decontamination, partial and total sanitary treatment, microbiological analysis for the detection, identification and confirmation of the biological agent. Therapy for disease induced by weaponized B. anthracis differs from classic antrax disease regarding antibiotics, doses and time, resulting a large antibiotic consumption per case. Complete recovery of the patients is achieved not only in terms of restoring normal biological parameters, but also in terms of the organism’s "sterilisation" regarding the causal biological agent.