Emergency Preparedness

Kern Medical Bioterrorism Response Guide Section 3 – Attachments

SUMMARY OF POTENTIAL BT D ISEASE SYNDROMES (CONTINUED)

Disease

Symptoms

Physical Exam

Diagnostic Tests

Key Differential Diagnosis

Incubation Period

Duration of Illness Death 36 –72 hours

Ricin

Weakness, fever, progressive cough, pulmonary edema, cyanosis, chest tightness, dyspnea, nausea & arthralgias.

Respiratory distress and death

Specific serum ELISA. Acute and convalescent sera should be collected.

Staphylococcal enterotoxin B, Q fever, tularemia, plague, some chemical warfare agents such as phosgene. Mustard agent, staphylococcal

4 – 8 hours

Mycotoxins

Skin – burning pain, redness, tenderness,

Skin blisters, epistaxis, blood

Blood, tissue and environmental samples – chromatography-mass

Minutes to

Death in minutes, hours or

(T-2)

blistering.

Enterotoxin B

hours

Nasal itching and pain, sneezing, epistaxis and tinged saliva and

spectrometry

rhinorrhea.

sputum.

days

Pulmonary/tracheobronchial – dyspnea, wheezing, and cough. Eyes – pain, tearing, redness, foreign body sensation and blurred vision may occur

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