These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: New challenges for public health care: biological and chemical weapons awareness, surveillance, and response.
    Author: Dudley JP.
    Journal: Biol Res Nurs; 2003 Apr; 4(4):244-50. PubMed ID: 12698916.
    Abstract:
    Recent events in the United States have demonstrated a critical need for recognizing nurses and emergency health care providers as important elements of the nation's first line of defense and response against terrorist attacks involving biological, chemical, or radiological weapons. The anthrax letter attacks of September/October 2001 demonstrate the importance of vigilance and attention to detail while interviewing and attending patients and when entering, reviewing, and cataloging patient records. Nursing professionals, emergency care responders, and physicians can perform a crucial role in our first-line defense against terrorism by detecting and reporting unusual or anomalous illness(es) consistent with possible exposure to biological or chemical agents. Nursing professionals should become more familiar with the etiology and clinical symptoms of biological agents of greatest current concern (smallpox, anthrax, tularemia, plague) and be alert for potentially anomalous or unfamiliar combinations of symptoms that could point to unwitting exposure to biological toxins, toxic chemicals, or cryptic radiological agents. Public health surveillance systems must be developed that encourage and facilitate the rapid reporting and follow-up investigation of suspect illnesses and potential disease outbreaks that will ensure early identification and response for covert attacks involving biological, chemical, or radiological weapons.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]