Bioterrorism Agents and Hospital Infection Control: No Time to Drop the Guard

Abstract

The hospital setting represents the sounding board for several infections, both from the community and from healthcare facilities, including highly communicable and emerging agents that cause severe and lethal infections. The US cases of anthrax in 2001 and the recent outbreaks (severe acute respiratory syndrome, H1N1 flu, avian flu, Shiga toxin producing E. coli, etc.) have heightened the need for preparedness and response to naturally emerging and re-emerging infections or deliberately released biological agents. However, there are some critical points to be discussed.