Armas biológicas no contexto da microbiologia clínica

Abstract

Virtually any pathogenic bacterium or virus is potentially useful for biological warfare, and many of the organisms most likely candidates are relatively easy to grown and spreading. The CDC classifies biological agents into three categories (A, B and C), and those in Category A are defined as high priority due to its ability to easily spread or being transmitted from person to person, for their potential impact on public health resulting in high mortality rates, for its ability to cause panic in the population and social dysfunction, and because they require special action for public health preparedness. Such agents and associated illnesses are: Bacillus anthracis (Anthrax), Clostridium botulinum - toxin - (Botulism); Yersinia pestis (Plague); Variola virus (Smallpox), Francisella tularensis (Tularemia), Filovirus and Arenavirus (Hemorrhagic Fevers - Ebola and Marburg; Lassa and Machupo). Although they have been developed protective measures for biological warfare, especially in the U.S., there are aspects that need to be investigated in order to suit the civil defense against a world-wide bioterrorist attack, especially in times of globalization. This study aims to contextualize biological weapons and describe the biological, epidemiological and clinical Category A biological agents, with the support of the available literature. In this sense, theevaluation of new contingency strategies, discussion of protocols of action and educational measures for the population should be emphasized, since a bioterrorist act in a country other than Brazil can reach us easily, due to the intense movement of people and products between countries.