Ten years ago, five Americans were killed and 17 were sickened in the worst biological attack in U.S. history when letters containing the bacterium Bacillus anthracis (B. anthracis, or more simply, anthrax) were sent through the mail. From October 4 to November 20, 2001, an additional 31 people tested positive for exposure to B. anthracis spores and approximately 32,000 individuals initiated a preventive antibiotic regime.

The National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine recently examined the threat of anthrax. Review of the Scientific Approaches Used During the FBI’s Investigation of the 2001 Anthrax Letters focuses on the investigation of the 2001 attacks. This book evaluates the scientific foundation for the specific techniques used by the FBI to determine whether these techniques met appropriate standards for scientific reliability and for use in forensic validation, and whether the FBI reached appropriate scientific conclusions from its use of these techniques.

Prepositioning Antibiotics for Anthrax addresses proactive efforts to provide treatment in the event of an aerosol B. anthracis or other bacterial agent event. Rapid access to antibiotics is critical for preventing and treating illness and death due to this kind of bioterrorism attack. Yet the logistics of effectively delivering antibiotics to prevent anthrax infection pose a tremendous challenge because such an attack could potentially expose a large number of people who would require antibiotics within a relatively brief time window. For example, if aerosolized anthrax were released over a large, densely populated area, hundreds of thousands of people could need antibiotics to prevent deadly inhalational anthrax. This book evaluates new dispensing strategies to provide antibiotics to all exposed and potentially exposed individuals.

Both of these books are available to read or download online at no charge.

	Review of the Scientific Approaches Used During the FBI’s Investigation of the 2001 Anthrax Letters Less than a month after the September 11, 2001 attacks, letters containing spores of anthrax bacteria (Bacillus anthracis, or B. anthracis) were sent through the U.S. mail. Between October 4 and November 20, 2001, 22 individuals developed anthrax; 5 of the…
	Prepositioning Antibiotics for Anthrax If terrorists released Bacillus anthracis over a large city, hundreds of thousands of people could be at risk of the deadly disease anthrax – caused by the B anthracis spores – unless they had rapid access to antibiotic medical countermeasures (MCM). Although…