The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #52459

Stanley H. Weiss, MD, Epidemiology/Dept of Preventive Medicine & Community Health, UMDNJ - New Jersey Medical School & NJ School of Public Health, 30 Bergen Street, Bldg ADMC16, Suite 1614, Newark, NJ 07107-3000, 973-972-7716, weiss@UMDNJ.EDU

This paper will review some evolving key epidemiologic and ethical issues related to bioterrorism, including currently theoretical matters that may prove highly relevant if there were a major bioterrorism "event," and introduce some of the topics to be covered more fully during the other prepared talks or in the "Panel Discussion" and the "Question & Answer Discussion" that follow. Interesting & complex issues arise with respect to our large immunocompromised, or possibly immunocompromised, populations (persons living with HIV, transplant recipients, chemotherapy patients, other persons with cancer, the elderly, etc). For example, if a live smallpox vaccine were administered as a public health measure, what risks would be faced by immunocompromised persons? How might immunocompromised populations play a role in changing the historical epidemiology of an infectious agent (such as changing the dynamics of person to person spread)? How might this impact on an outbreak caused by an infectious pathogen that was deployed for bioterrorism in various settings? How might these issues impact upon, and affect the planning of, various proposed strategies (e.g., the CDC ring strategy)? Under what circumstances might isolation measures or quarantine be necessary in a bioterrorism event? In what ways might immunocompromised populations impact on such strategies: With respect to efforts to protect those who are immunocompromised? To protect the general public?

Learning Objectives: