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One of humankind’s worst ideas has also been one of its most
persistent: the notion of deliberately using germs as
weapons. Today, experts worry that terrorists may adopt this
grim tactic, so they work to protect the public. |
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An antique image shows the
bodies of plague victims piling up outside a European
city.
Source:
National Institutes of Health |
No one knows who were the first bioterrrorists. That dubious
honor may belong to Assyrian warriors in the sixth century
B.C. They used a deadly fungus to poison the wells of their
enemies. Germ warfare remained alive and well in the year
1346, when the Tatars attacked the Crimean city of Caffa on
the Black Sea. They had suffered an outbreak of plague and
decided to share it with their foes. To do so, they hurled
the infected bodies of the dead over the city walls. Fleeing
residents carried the disease to Italy, sparking Europe’s
second major epidemic of the Black
Death.
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In a December 4, 1775, letter
to the Continental Congress, Gen. George Washington
reported hearing a rumor that the British were trying to
spread smallpox near Boston. He called smallpox his
"most dangerous enemy."
Source:
National Archives |
Beginning in 1492, the Europeans who came to America
unknowingly brought with them diseases that wiped out huge
numbers of natives. A few documented instances of purposeful
bioterrorism occurred during the French and Indian War
(1754-1767), when Britain and France vied for control of
North America. British forces distributed smallpox-infested
blankets to Native Americans who had sided with the French.
MODERN MADNESS
Interest in bioweapons intensified in modern times. Japan
used them in China during World War II, and the Soviet Union
developed an ambitious bioweapons program. Its dark
achievements included creating an airborne form of the
smallpox virus. The disease could then be loaded into bombs
and missiles. The United States launched its own bioweapons
effort, reportedly testing delivery devices (armed with
harmless germs) in American cities.
More recently, countries around the world have thought long
and hard about bioweapons. During the 1970s, a group of
nations, led by the U.S., negotiated and signed an agreement
known as the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). It went
into effect on March 26, 1975. The BWC bans the development,
production, and stockpiling of almost all bioweapons. (There
were some exceptions for self-defense.) So far, more than
170 countries have signed the agreement.
PRESENT PERILS
Happy ending, right? Not exactly. The BWC does not contain
any real way to make sure that countries actually obey its
restrictions. In the late 1980s, top Soviet scientists defected to the U.S. and revealed that
their country had continued to develop bioweapons long after
signing the BWC. In fact, 32,000 scientists and staff had
comprised Biopreparat, the largest and most comprehensive
covert biological weapons program in world history. Anthrax
was among their specialties. Another signatory, Iraq, also
created bioweapons during the 1980s. Even worse, it admitted
it was actually ready to use them as a weapon in 1991.
That same year brought another bioweapons milestone: the
collapse of the Soviet Union. It splintered into 15
different countries, the largest of which is Russia.
Officials in those countries have reported that the Soviet
bioweapons program is dead. They also claimed to have
destroyed stockpiles of the smallpox virus. Not everyone is
sure whether to believe them, though.
That raises the possibility that stashes of bioweapons may
lurk in Earth’s shadier corners. That, in turn, sparks a
disquieting question: What would happen if terrorists got
their hands on such nasty stuff? To explore that hot topic,
let’s look at three diseases with bioweapon potential:
anthrax, Ebola fever, and
smallpox.
CASE STUDY: ANTHRAX
Anthrax is largely an animal disease. It exists among cows
and other creatures that live in herds. It is caused by a
bacterium known as Bacillus anthracis. Now and then, the
disease makes the leap from animals to humans. This can
happen when people come in contact with infected animals or
products made from them.
In humans, anthrax can afflict the skin, the lungs, or the
digestive system. Skin cases are unpleasant, but usually not
too dangerous. Inside the body, though, the disease can be
deadly.
Americans saw the lethal power of anthrax in September 2001.
Bioterrorists took anthrax spores, or cells, and ground them
into a fine powder. They stuffed the powder into envelopes,
which they mailed to prominent Americans. Along the way, the
disease infected 22 people, particularly postal workers,
from Connecticut to Florida. Five died. The senders of these bioweapons have yet to be caught.
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An anti-bioterrorism squad in Washington, D.C., demonstrates techniques for
cleaning up after the 2001 anthrax attacks. Source:
Stanford University |
Federal and state officials have developed plans for
combating similar attacks. Their strategies include training
emergency response teams and developing a national database
to track cases. They also maintain supplies of vaccines and
antibiotics to use in the case of an outbreak.
CASE STUDY: EBOLA HEMORRHAGIC FEVER
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This poster tells people in
the African city of Kikwit how to avoid catching Ebola
fever.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |
Ebola is a disease caused by a virus. It gets its name from
the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and
it exists primarily in Africa. The disease causes bleeding
throughout the body, killing a large percentage of those who
develop symptoms.
Researchers believe that humans catch Ebola from coming into
contact with an infected animal. Although the virus is hard
to spread, Ebola can be transmitted from person to person,
via direct contact with the blood or secretions of someone
who is infected. This usually occurs when a family member or
healthcare provider cares for a person with Ebola. They can
also be exposed to the virus via an object used by a
patient.
Visit the CDC to learn about all
documented outbreaks since 1976.
As far as we know, Ebola has never been used as a bioweapon.
Experts fear, however, that bioterrorists could modify the
virus, giving it the ability to spread more easily. That’s a
scary prospect, because diseases like Ebola are so effective
at killing people. The National Institutes of Health has
created a vaccine for prevention of Ebola in monkeys that is
now being tested for its effectiveness on humans.
CASE STUDY: SMALLPOX
click
to enlarge image
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Pocks, or sores, mark the faces and limbs of small-pox patients. These sores give the disease its name.
Source:
University of Alabama at Birmingham |
Smallpox is one of the most dreaded diseases in human
history. Caused by the variola virus, it spreads quickly
from person to person. It causes pocks, or sores, to break out
all over the infected person’s body. If the patient
survives, the pocks will leave lifelong scars.
On a brighter note, smallpox is the one disease that humans
seem to have wiped from the globe. Between 1967 and 1977, a
World Health Organization (WHO) campaign eradicated naturally
occurring smallpox. The last known case in the U.S. occurred
in 1949, and the last known case in the world occurred in
Somalia in 1977. Yet samples of the variola virus exist in
two WHO labs, one in Atlanta, Georgia and one in Russia. Scientists continue to debate whether to destroy these last
smallpox
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United Nations patches
celebrate the wiping out of smallpox.
Source: U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services |
viruses or to keep them in case the need arises for
further research. One fear is that the virus may be held
secretly in other places as well.
Experts believe the likelihood of using smallpox as a
bioweapon is fairly small. Still, officials want to be
prepared. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001,
the U.S. government asked pharmaceutical companies to
produce batches of the smallpox vaccine. These are kept on
hand to be used in the event of a bioterrorism strike or
other outbreak.
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Humans have two principal types of
