Table 64.3.

Comparisons of Common Characteristics of Conventional Disasters and Anticipated Characteristics of a Bioweapons Attack on Civilians

Characteristic	Conventional Disastera	Bioterror Attack
Recognition that event has occurred	Usually immediate	May be delayed due to covert release
Time from event to victims' seeking medical care	Minutes to hours	May be days or longer
Number of victims who survive until initial medical evaluation	May be large, but most not critically ill (proportion of critically ill may be higher in confined space explosions)	May be very large, and for some pathogens the proportion of critically ill victims may be high
Affected geographic area and time to recovery	Usually geographically and temporally limited	May involve large regions and victims may continue to present for weeks to months or longer after the first case is recognized
Situational awareness of number of victims and scope of exposure	Minutes to hours	May be delayed by days or longer
Medical staff for response	Initially may be limited but usually remedied quickly	Likely to be limited if person-to-person transmission

^aCharacteristics for conventional disasters refer to events involving conventional explosives.