Immunization against potential biological warfare agents

The intentional release of biological agents by belligerents or terrorists is a possibility that has recently attracted increased attention. Law enfor cement agencies, military planners, public hearth officials, and clinicians are gaining an increasing awareness of this potential threat. From a milit ary perspective, an important component of the protective pre-exposure arma mentarium against this threat is immunization. In addition, certain vaccine s are an accepted component of postexposure prophylaxis against potential b ioterrorist threat agents. These vaccines might, therefore, be used to resp ond to a terrorist attack against civilians. We review the development of v accines against 10 of the most credible biological threats.