Risk Assessment And Risk Communication Strategies In Bioterrorism Preparedness

The anthrax envelopes incident in the United States in 2001 created the impetusfor a substantial increase in preparedness for bioterrorist threats among bothpub... » 

The anthrax envelopes incident in the United States in 2001 created the impetusfor a substantial increase in preparedness for bioterrorist threats among bothpublic health and law enforcement professionals worldwide. Ever increasingresources are now being allocated for dealing with a wide variety of potentialthreats from the reintroduction of eradicated viruses such as smallpox to thepossibility of genetically engineered novel pathogens. Despite the potentiallydevastating consequences of the various projected bioterror scenarios itremains remarkably difficult to quantitatively assess the actual risk in eachof these scenarios. Nevertheless such risk assessment is crucial fordetermining the appropriate allocation of resources for research andpreparedness. The public anxiety expected during a largescale bioterrorismattack may even be more damaging than the direct effects of the bioterrorismagent both in healthrelated and economic outcomes. Carefully tailored riskcommunication is a major tool for individuals decisionmakers or even entirecommunities to make educated decisions about their responses to wellbeing andavoid social disruption. In this book we have included articles from leadingexperts in the various disciplines associated with risk assessment and riskcommunication associated with bioterrorism. These papers are based onpresentations at a NATO Advanced Research Workshop in Israel in June 2005which addressed these issues. The resulting volume integrates the viewpoints ofpublic health law enforcement risk analysis and media experts into acomprehensive practical guide for approaching risk assessment and riskcommunication in a bioterrorism event. «