On March 4, 2015, The New England Journal of Medicine published a review article of bioterror pathogens, written by Amesh Adalja and other senior scholars at the UPMC Center for Health Security. The impetus for the review, entitled, “Clinical Management of Potential Bioterrorism-Related Conditions,” was to provide clinicians with new information about infectious diseases like anthrax, plague, botulism, tularemia, and smallpox.
“The anthrax attacks in the U.S. occurred nearly 14 years ago, so they have fallen off doctors’ radar screens,” Adalja says in a press release from the Center for Health Security. “Many clinicians have never seen or treated a case of anthrax or smallpox. Physicians need to be reminded of the possibility for these diseases to occur as a result of a deliberate action and to collaborate with public health officials to take steps toward preparedness.”
When they heard The New England Journal of Medicine would pick up the review for publication, Adalja says that he and his colleagues were “ecstatic.” Adalja, who is a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Critical Care Medicine, an alumnus (’10) of our Multidisciplinary Critical Care Fellowship Training Program (MCCTP), and a Senior Associate at the Center for Health Security, collaborated with Eric Toner, also a Senior Associate, and Thomas Inglesby, Director and CEO of the Center.