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Bioterrorism is defined as
the use of microorganisms that cause human disease, or the toxins released from them,
to harm people or elicit widespread fear or intimidation of society. Biological/Chemical
weapons are devices to deliberately disseminate disease producing organisms or toxins
in food, water, insect vector and an aerosol.
Public health officials, medical personnel, firefighters, military and other law enforcement
need to be able to identify the most threatening of the biological weapons, specially those
that require preparedness measures.
A number of of Pharmacom's initiatives is to identify the correct medical response under the diverse
mode of biological attacks. We focus on emerging infectious disease research, including
research on pathogens that can be used as agents of bioterrorism. Biodefense research
is similar to other emerging infectious diseases. It entails research to understand the
pathogenesis of these microbes, how the host responds to them, and the translation of
this knowledge into useful treatments, diagnostics, and vaccines.
The following diagram shows the effects of a nuclear and biological weapons release.
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