Biological agent release incidents

Possible early clinical and environmental indicators of an intentional biological agent release incident are shown in Box 4.4. Effective public health surveillance systems may also reveal signs of an intentional biological agent release, although these will most likely be delayed by several days as a greater number of cases present, and data are collected and analysed. Box 4.5 shows some of the public health surveillance indicators that may be seen. 

Initial management of a suspected biological agent release incident... 

The initial management of a suspected accidental or deliberate biological agent release incident will be carried out by the same general principles that apply to all chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) incidents. This has been covered in more detail in Chapter 2. 

Current recommendations for prescribing appropriate post-exposure prophylaxis following deliberate biological agent release incidents are shown in Table 4.32. Updates can be found via the HPA website www.hpa.org.uk... 

Post-exposure prophylaxis is the practice of providing treatment immediately after a suspected or confirmed biological agent release in order to attempt to limit the duration, severity, incidence and transmission of subsequent disease in asymptomatic individuals. 

Any accident or incident which resulted or could have resulted in the release or escape of a biological agent likely to cause severe human infection or illness. 

We have already seen that chemical incidents are relatively quick-acting and limited, whereas biological incidents would take time before they are recognized for what they are. In general, one can consider a chemical release or attack to be a lights and sirens affair, that is, rapid response and (hopefully) expeditious treatment of casualties. In a bioterrorist event, however, people would be unlikely to know that they were exposed to an infectious agent or toxin until the first symptoms appear, at the very least several hours following the event. 

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