Q fever in Logroño: an attack scenario.

Bioterrorism has emerged as an important infectious disease and public health challenge in the 21st century, and issues of preparedness and response are now prominent. The development of attack scenarios for assessing this problem contributes to the organization of response systems and identifies aspects that may need to be improved. The authors present an attack scenario involving Q fever in a specific area, the city of Logroño, Spain. The evolution of the outbreak is described and the attempts at diagnosis and implementation of public health measures are outlined. Knowledge of the pathogen in the specific scenario and the ability to directly diagnose the disease it causes may be of help to facilitate a fast response that will contain public unrest and the eventual outcome in terms of morbidity and mortality.