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Terrorism has taken a psychological toll but has also brought a reassessment of the role of public health

Workmen in biohazard suits wheel detection equipment into the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill in late October. The building was closed for nearly three weeks following the discovery of anthrax
Photo ©AFP/Shawn Thew

The televised images of Sept. 11, 2001, were deeply shocking: jetliners crashing into skyscrapers, desperate office workers leaping to certain death, and stunned, ash-covered survivors stumbling about in a daze.

When terrorists demolished New York's tallest buildings and crashed into the Pentagon in closely timed suicide attacks that day, they killed some 3,500 people. In the following weeks, deadly anthrax spores mailed to politicians and media figures killed five, but induced fear of bioterrorism among millions throughout the United States and even abroad.

These attacks caused an immediate rise in stress levels and mental problems, according to mental health experts. But they have also brought a reassessment of the role and importance of the public health sector, prompting calls for new international efforts to strengthen the United States' and other countries' capacities to respond.

"We must maximize our collective resources and expertise to improve our health security-nationally, regionally, and globally," said U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson during a ministerial meeting on international health security in Ottawa in early November.

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