Clinical Guide to Bioweapons and Chemical Agents

Recent events of the past 5 years are fundamentally driving the need for enhanced public health protection across the world. Although the issues are complex, one aspect is paramount: new, innovative approaches for early identification and intervention are essential for optimal responses to these dangers.

The many challenges confronting healthcare systems include:

• Operation at near-capacity much of the time, with severely limited ability to absorb the increasing burdens of potential public health issues
• Serious neglect of the public health system for many years
• Suboptimal working relationships between public health agencies and "front-line" health care practitioners

This book will assist in the new public health response to the threats from bioterrorism and other public health disease by combining established principles of disease management protocols with effective differential diagnosis algorithms.

With time in front of the patient always at a premium, there is the need for tools to aid the clinician in the efficient management of patients. While the majority of specialist clinicians have the complete diagnostic toolkit, many of the more unusual disorders and their diagnostic features are less clear to the general internist and primary care/family medicine physician.

It is with this in mind that the author has been collating the current diagnostic criteria for all health-related bioterrorist threats and other public health disorders. This book proposal represents the print version of this project and is intended to be a quick reference for the busy clinician. With this in mind, the format of the book will be designed for maximum ease of use in the clinic. It will have a pocketbook trim size and will extend to approximately 300 pages.

Although no single approach answers all of the challenges confronting our public health system, the book fulfills many of the requirements by providing:

• Point-of-care decision support for physicians, other health care workers, and first responders when confronted with suspected public health diseases and conditions;
• A common format and lexicon for all persons and entities involved in public health decisions and for ease of real-time data collection; and
• A means for mass education of health care professionals and first responders about specific diseases and conditions.