UPMC's Thomas V. Inglesby on Preparing for the Worst

摘要

For those whose job it is to worry about the future, the list of potential threats has always been a long one, although dominated by the usual four apocalyptic suspects: war, famine, pestilence and, of course, death. Until recently, fears of pestilence focused only on naturally occurring epidemics. Now, though, the deliberate spread of infectious disease-biological weapons and bioterrorism-is considered an undeniable strategic threat to the nation and the world, and a new field of research has emerged to deal with it.