Exciting new book by one of our collaborators

Our colleagues at the Borden Institute on Walter Reed AMC recently came out with a new book. We didn't help on this one, but we are collaborating on an illustrated history of Walter Reed AMC. I was speaking to a friend who's an historian of medicine today and he was marveling at how much historical information needed to be included in this volume.

Book Explores Medical Aspects of Biological Warfare

BORDEN INSTITUTE RELEASES MEDICAL ASPECTS OF BIOLOGICAL WARFARE

Washington, DC - Reflecting the critical threat posed by biological warfare and terrorism, the Borden Institute has released Medical Aspects of Biological Warfare, the latest volume in the Textbooks of Military Medicine series.

This book is an update of the previous edition of Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare, published in 1997. "The need for a revised version of this work has never been greater. A decade later, the complexity of the threat has increased beyond the boundaries of state-sponsored programs and to the terrorist use of novel pathogens," according to Colonel George W. Korch, MS, US Army, Commander, US Army
Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. "The continued threat of biological weapons dictates that all Department of Defense medical personnel become conversant with state-of-the-art treatment for biological casualties. What may have been perceived merely as useful information in the past is now a requirement for all medical providers."

Major General Gale S. Pollock, while serving as the acting surgeon general, recently said that "we must counter this threat with vigilance and maximize our response to attack with our best medical practices to identify agents involved, minimize casualties, and expedite the treatment of survivors."

Grounded in a historical perspective, Medical Aspects of Biological Warfare addresses weaponization of biological agents, categorizing potential agents as food, waterborne, or agricultural agents or toxins, and discusses their respective epidemiology. Descriptions of individual agents and the illnesses induced include recent advances in biomedical knowledge. The authors present familiar (anthrax, plague, smallpox) and less often discussed (alphaviruses, staphylococcal enterotoxins) biotoxins and explain methods for early agent identification. To
maximize understanding, authors present case studies and research on successful management practices, treatments, and antidotes.

Topics covered by the book include the history of biological weapons; food, waterborne, and agricultural diseases; epidemiology of biowarfare and bioterrorism; organisms and toxins; laboratory identification; consequence management; medical management of biological casualties; countermeasures; biosafety; ethical and legal considerations in biodefense research; and emerging infectious diseases.

Conceived in 1987, the Borden Institute, under the Army Surgeon General, publishes the Textbooks of Military Medicine. Each book is a comprehensive subject reference on the art and science of military medicine, extensively illustrated, and written to integrate lessons learned in past wars with current principles and practices of military medicine.

The Borden Institute offers volumes in hardback, as well as on its website and on CD-ROM.

For more information on the Borden Institute and how to order the publications, visit the organization online at www.bordeninstitute.army.mil.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Ronald Wallace, 202-782-4329 or
ronald.wallace @na.amedd.army.mil