Bioterrorism Emergency Preparedness for Hospitals Research Paper

Bioterrorism Emergency Preparedness for Hospitals - Research Paper Example The choice of this mode of terrorism can be advocated the fact that the agents are not easily detected and in most cases, the symptoms are not seen until after several hours or days. Given the nature of bioterrorism and its effect to the public, there is a need for hospitals to come up with a measure that would make sure that they are ready for them at any time. In the United States of America, the agents that are perceived to pose potential to the health and safety of the general population are referred to as select agents. For the hospitals to promptly respond to bioterrorism whenever there take place there need to be proper planning on the things that should be done to either avoid the occurrence or respond to the occurrences. Most biological defense strategies were meant to protect people in the army and not the general population. However, it has been observed in the recent past that there is a need for there to be measures taken by hospitals to make sure that they are always pr epared for disasters that might arise from bioterrorism that might affect the general population in large masses. They need to be prepared for the occurrence of bioterrorism is enhanced by the ease of obtaining a bioterrorism agent. At the moment there is a need for there to be a detection system that will enable the healthcare sector to be able to detect such occurrences before they are spread to large masses. However, since the development of such a system cannot be said to have been successful, it is important for hospitals and the healthcare sector, in general, to make sure that they have in place some preparation for the occurrence of such calamities. One thing that hospitals should make sure that they do is training their personnel on how to handle the affected masses during the bioterrorism attacks.