War against superbugs, stopping them before they stop us: a biological warfare approach to safeguard European biosecurity

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has transformed both the modern battlefield and the microbial environment surrounding the war-wounded. Explosive injuries, prolonged evacuation, and limited opportunities for early decontamination have contributed to an unprecedented rise in multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) infections. This paper describes how routine infection prevention and control (IPC) and antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) systems have become inadequate under conflict conditions and how contamination evolves into colonization and then systemic infection as casualties move through the evacuation pathway.Building on the national IPC and AMS strengthening, we outline a complementary crisis intervention: the application of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear-inspired decontamination principles to routine trauma care. These measures incorporate structured early irrigation and debridement, antiseptic cleansing, removal of contaminated materials, and the use of dedicated decontamination spaces at hospital entry. They are designed to reinforce existing programs by reducing microbial burden at the earliest point of contact. Implementing this approach aims to disrupt MDRO acquisition and transmission, protect fragile healthcare infrastructure, and mitigate escalating biosecurity risks. Ukraine’s conflict experience has informed the development of this proposed concept, with formal implementation and impact evaluation planned as the next phase of work.