USAMRIID's Medical Management of Biological Casualties Handbook

Rating:
Summary: A concise BW handbook for military medical personnel
Review: The Medical Management of Biological Casualties Handbook, issued by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick (Maryland), is a concise guidebook distributed to military medical personnel for use out in the field. This little blue book serves as a clear and ready reference on the nature and threat of possible biological casualties; it is by no means a complete text or manual dealing with biological weapon agents. The book also serves as supplemental material for the biological coursework included in the military's Medical Management of Chemical and Biological Casualties Course. The purpose of this ready reference guide comes down to helping medical personnel identify any possible biological weapons attack against our forces in the field in as timely a fashion as possible.

The book offers a breakdown of three main categories of biological agents: bacteria such as anthrax, cholera, plague, tularemia, and Q fever; viruses such as smallpox, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, and viral hemorrhagic fevers; and biological toxins such as ricin, botulinim, staphylococcal enterotoxin B, and T-2 mycotoxins. In each case, it gives a rundown of signs and symptoms, provides information on diagnosing and treating individuals, and offers advice on safeguarding the health of all others in the area as quickly and efficiently as possible should the extent and source of the casualties indicate the possibility of an actual biological weapons attack. The book then offers pertinent information on the general topics of detection, personal protection, and decontamination.

Given the threats of the world today, I thought the discussion of different biological threat possibilities would prove interesting and informative. To a degree, I was right in thinking this, as I learned a good bit about threats I was already familiar with as well as threats I had not heard of before. The overviews of each possible biological weapon agent as well as an overview of the army's work in this critical field were quite informative, but this is really a book for trained medical personnel, and as such much of the medical jargon was lost on me. Obviously, though, this handbook is laid out in a clear and concise manner and would surely be a ready source of excellent information for medical personnel out in the field. It also demonstrates how seriously the U.S. military has been taking the threat of biological weapons long before the events of September 11, 2001.