Topic > Bioterrorism Essay - 710

The way the disease spread so widely was through the use of mail and letters that B.anthracis sports were placed in packages and envelopes so that when the targets were to open the mail they would unexpectedly inhale the spores and succumb to the spores and develop anthrax (Jernigan et al., 2001). Anthrax is a very serious infectious disease that, if inhaled, can cause nausea, cough, fever and other flu-like symptoms that make diagnosis difficult. Fortunately, anthrax is not transmitted from human to human, meaning it cannot spread as widely as the flu ( Bell, Kozarsky, & Stephens, 2002 ). Five people died from this attack out of 11 people infected, i.e. a mortality rate of 45% (Fennelly et al., 2004), if this attack had been more widespread there would have been the potential for millions of people to be taken targeted and even killed. It is important that prevention and detection of these attacks is widely available and rapid