Bioterrorism is an increasing public awareness threat and the need for public and medical health professionals for preparedness is a great concern. According to Ryan (2016), bioterrorism is a type of terrorism whereby terrorist used biological agent to cause terror. The most common agents used as biological weapons include Marburg virus, Ebola virus, Smallpox, and Anthrax.
Quarantine and isolation play a crucial role in controlling spread of communicable diseases under particular circumstances such as bioterrorism. Bioterrorism has been used for many generations from historical times to present. An example of a bioterrorism include the British giving Native Americans Blankets infected with Smallpox, which spread to the region during colonial times. The Britain’s commander in chief in North America, Jeffery Amherst, ordered the use of smallpox as a weapon to kill their enemy, Native Americans, during the Indian and French War. Amherst indicated that spreading the disease would be effective in helping them achieve their goals. The colonials’ weaponized smallpox against Native Americans, which has devastated Native Americans throughout history as well as in the present day. Native Americans in the contemporary society still experience severe struggles with certain diseases (Bolz Jr, Dudonis & Schulz, 2016).
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When including quarantine and isolation in public health emergency response plans, emergency managers and public health planners must consider some major factors. Examples of these factors include identifying a set of ethical guidelines that need to be applied in the emergency preparation and response. In addition, they need to identify different legal issues that are applicable to measures of social distancing. Moreover, they need to identify various human rights concerns related with behavioral interventions that might be applied in the emergency preparedness plans to contain the epidemic. Evidence indicates that effective public health interventions could have adverse impact on the economic status and civil liberties (Ryan, 2016). Therefore, it is crucial for mangers and public health planners to address the ethical, legal, and human rights concerns to reduce the social consequences that might occur because of such interventions.
References
Bolz Jr, F., Dudonis, K. J., & Schulz, D. P. (2016). Weapons of Mass Destruction. In The Counterterrorism Handbook (pp. 191-218). CRC Press.
Ryan, J. (2016). Biosecurity and bioterrorism: containing and preventing biological threats . Butterworth-Heinemann.
