מתוך medicontext.co.il
LONDON (Reuters Health) – The long-term social and psychological damage from bioterrorism may be worse than the acute consequences if care is not taken, editorialists observe in the British Medical Journal for October 20.
Biological and chemical agents are so limited as military weapons that their only real purpose is to "wreak destruction via psychological means–by inducing fear, confusion, and uncertainty in everyday life," the authors remark.
Civilian populations have been known to withstand other types of attacks designed only to terrorize, such as aerial bombing, they note. Large-scale panic would not necessarily materialize. The editorialists urge physicians and others in positions of authority to beware of inadvertently amplifying psychological responses to bioterrorism.
"It's sometimes difficult for physicians to not get swept up in the general anxiety," co-author Dr. Simon Wessely told Reuters Health in a telephone interview. "They should remember their training and stay cool."
"Biological and chemical weapons are not used by most armed forces. Many countries have acquiesced in treaties limiting their use," pointed out Dr. Wessely, who is on the faculty of Guy's, King's and St Thomas' School of Medicine in London. "They've done so because [these types of weapons] are not very good. After all, you wouldn't get armies agreeing to limit nuclear submarines or tanks or rifles, because they are effective and the armies need them."
He offered Irish Republican Army bombings in Belfast and London as examples of how civilians cope with a continuing threat. "It becomes an irritation. For some people, it was an appalling tragedy, but for society it was something to get used to. The quicker that happens, the better."
When sarin was released on the Tokyo subway, which Dr. Wessely described as "the most concentrated area of humanity in the world," there were only 12 fatalities. "If that's the best they can do…" he said, his voice trailing off.
The only way terrorists can bring society to its knees, he said, is when the response is to shut down government, media, commerce, and industry. "That is the purpose of it. [Terrorists] couldn't do it by any other way, because the weapons themselves are not particularly effective."
"We can easily underestimate the powers of resilience of civic society," Dr. Wessely concluded. "We can easily underestimate people's capacity to absorb adversity."
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