Anthrax as a Potential Biological Warfare Agent

Abstract

Anthrax is a zoonotic illness recognized since antiquity. Today, human anthrax has been all but eradicated from the industrialized world, with the vast majority of practitioners in the United States unlikely to have seen a case. Unfortunately, the disease remains endemic in many areas of the world, and anthrax poses a threat as a mass casualty–producing weapon if used in a biological warfare capacity.