The Biohazard Message

Mainly due to its entertaining purpose, fiction has a greater market penetration than non-fiction, but it seems that a large part of its potential to illustrate current biological threats is being missed. Sixteen biothrillers are analysed to present the main ideas that make up a singular biohazard discourse. To ascertain the feasibility of the situations proposed in these books, there is a thorough study of available documentation on epidemics, acts of biowarfare and bioterrorism, and biological accidents. Thus, such works can be taken as reasoned simulations of a biohazard event since they portray a series of common features about the people involved, the agents likely to be used, and potential locations for these events to take place. Finally, some valid extrapolations for real life are reached that show the social value of this kind of narrative. At the end of the book, it is not difficult to understand the reasons for the emergence of these threats and what preventive measures can be taken in the present and future. Biothrillers are therefore shown to be fully instructive, as they can reach a larger number of people who are not habitual readers of specialised medical journals.