1. INTRODUCTION Disasters are sudden, unpredictable, calamitous event, bringing great damage and devastation to life and property. Disasters can be Natural like earth quake, land slide, tsunami, cyclones, flood or drought and major accidents. It can also be man-made like war and terrorism, both in war and terrorism chemical, biological or radiological agent can be used. In any of these situations, significant social, environmental and economical impact would occur. Casualties following disasters, and major accidents could escalate very rapidly if necessary preventive methods are not followed. Infectious disease disasters consist of biological attack, emerging infectious disease outbreaks, and pandemics. There are a broad range of potential biological agents, including bacteria, viruses, and toxins (of microbial, plant, or animal origin) used as bio warfare or bioterrorism. Bio warfare has the potential to result in high morbidity and mortality, because aerosolized biological agents can infect or kill many people in a short period of time. 1.1 Biological Warfare (BW) Biological warfare or bio warfare is the use of biological …show more content…
Pathogens are pervasive in nature and can be found everywhere. The possibility of synthesizing pathogens particularly viruses, using technologies are inexpensive and globally available. The skills and equipment for making a biological weapon are largely the same as those required for progress in medicine, agriculture, and other fields and are required for future economic prosperity for the nation, so they cannot be locked away. Public health, medical, military, and law enforcement experts have met in a number of settings in efforts to identify the most threatening of the biological weapons, specifically those weapons that merit priority concern in the development of public health and medical preparedness
“Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Soviet Union and the United Kingdom were among many countries that investigated how to wage biological war.” (pg. 38) Some of these countries have biological weapons programs and even some biological weapons have been used in the past. A Russian program “known to the Soviets as “the Concern Bioreparat”, supposedly a series of laboratories and plants that manufactured vaccines and other medicinal products, was in fact a vast network of secret cities, production plants of Moscow’s germ effort. Bioreparat studied and perfected germs as weapons. President Richard Nixon’s administration became the “world’s leading advocate for a treaty banning germ warfare. Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention- prohibited the possession of deadly biological agents except for research…for vaccines, detection and protective gear. It was the world’s first treaty to ban an entire class of weapons.” (pg. 63) April 1979, an explosion at a secret military base near Soviet city of Sverdlovsk, sent a cloud of Bacillus anthracis fanning over a nearby village, leaving thousands dead. Although the Soviets, had signed the treaty, they denied allegations that this was “nothing more nefarious than tainted meat.” (pg. 77) During the Gulf War, for example, biological weapons developed by Iraq posed a threat and they might, if fact still pose a threat. While US went in search of nuclear
The fear of a Chemical or Biological attack has been a concern to many governments. These attacks, either by state agencies or individuals, have caused loss of life and the United States has not been spared in this forms of attacks.
Welcome to week 4! This week we are discussing what consequences face the Nation if our chosen threat isn’t adequately addressed and whether we believe that it is being addressed adequately now. Of the six security challenges that are mentioned in the 2014 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review, I have chosen to discuss biological threats. Biological terrorism is a scary prospect that should be a growing concern for the country. The reason for this is the ease at which a bio attack can be put into action. Depending on the level of intricacy of the attack, the effects could be isolated to one area or become a pandemic that spreads across the United States. Bioterrorism comes in many forms but as a general explanation biological
The Bioterrorisk simulation, which is developed by the Illinois Public Health Prepared-ness Center, is a case based mini course. The bioterrorism events of 9/11 and Anthrax epidemic in the United States have alarmed the nation’s capability to respond to the bioterrorism attacks. The Public Health role in bioterrorism preparedness and response is to plan and organize the medical and public health first response personnel to identify and investigate any disease outbreaks by using the surveillance systems, laboratory services and using the similar disease epidemic data available in
The poster shows a man in a car with a shadowy presence of Hitler in the passenger seat with the caption, “When you ride alone, you ride with Hitler. Join a car-sharing club today.” In photo number 3, the type of propaganda being used is transfer. Transfer employs the images of famous people to convey a message not necessarily associated with them. Photo 3 utilizes Hitler and his wrongs to persuade people to not ride alone, to not show they are with Hitler, and join a car club when in reality, Hitler does not have any sort of association with riding alone or a car club. Another type of propaganda used in photo 3 is fear. Fear is a technique very popular among political parties and PACs in the United States. It is shown in the photo because
In this day and age, it is surprisingly easy to obtain or create a bomb. On the black market alone, nuclear smuggling is a 100 billion dollar industry (havocscope). Of course, bombs are deadly and nations must always be diligent in guarding against nuclear terrorist attacks, but what about smaller, more undetectable threats to our lives? There are trillions of bacteria and fungi in the world, and possibly just as many viruses. Currently the CDC lists approximately 29 potentially weaponizable biological agents, ranging from Ebola to the Nipah virus. They are rather easy to come by in nature and some of them are easily synthesized in a laboratory, such as influenza, which has the
In the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001 and the anthrax outbreaks that occurred in the United States, a method needed to be developed to determine if an outbreak was natural or intentionally released. “The open or covert use of pathogens and toxins as biological warfare agents can no longer be ruled out” (Grunow & Finke, 2002, pg. 510). The events that occurred in The Dalles, Oregon further show that such a procedure needed to be developed. In 2002 R. Grunow
One of the world’s most dreaded plagues for centuries, smallpox is now eradicated. Vaccination programs were pushed worldwide by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the disease was eliminated from the world. This push resulted in the last naturally occurring case in the world being almost 40 years ago. Once eradicated the once routine or mandatory vaccinations were stopped for the general public and it was deemed no longer necessary to prevent the disease. Although currently eradicated worldwide, two medical laboratory stockpiles still remain in Russia and the United States. With these stockpiles in existence the possibility of bio terrorism emerges and fear of these stockpiles getting into the wrong hands and being weaponized for
After events such as 9/11, terrorism still instills fear into America’s population. Why? Simply because it is the one danger the American people cannot control. Biological terrorism is not always feared or worried about, but it is a genuine possibility and a lethal surprise that causes devastation. If not prepared, these deadly pathogens could easily kill large amounts of people. With tensions on the rise, what will the government or citizens do to defend themselves? If something happens, how will Americans be able to care for themselves and families? Bioterrorism is becoming a serious threat that needs to be eradicated to gain biosecurity and to ensure the safety of Americans.
For all the global oversight against bioweapons, this threat remains especially pernicious. A unique aspect of bioterror is that it can be difficult to tell the difference between naturally occurring disease and accidents, and an intentional attack. For this reason, a biological attack would require a huge level of coordination among federal, state and local public health and security officials. In addition, bioweapons do not have to be naturally occurring – toxins and deadly organisms can be produced in a lab. Growing large amounts of an agent is possible, although equipment, space, safety, and technical knowledge all play a role. The threat is that creating a bioweapon often requires techniques that are already published in scientific literature. Additionally, the equipment required is somewhat easily obtained, since it is required for legitimate research. This creates a perplexing “dual-use” problem, wherein it is hard to create restrictions against bioweapons without inhibiting industry.
The world of Plains Indians and of other American Indians in the West had existed for several centuries. The 18th century, in particular, represents the West as we think about it before the arrival of the white man. This enormous area of the Great Plains, Southwest, Pacific Northwest, and Basin area represented the homelands of many Indian communities. At least 28 tribes might be called Plains Indians. Trade alliances existed among these peoples, and protecting hunting domains was important to their economy, depending on the natural resources of the environment, which included antelope and smaller game. North American Indians shared their world with two types of buffalo (plains and wood), eight species of bear, three primary species of wolves,
Throughout the progression of mankind, there has always been a need to become superior in tactics and technology over an opponent. It did not take long for man to discover the effective and deadly tactic of Bioterrorism, which is the deliberate release of viruses, bacteria or other germs used to cause illness or death in people, animals, or plants. As time passes, everything about bioterrorism becomes more and more sophisticated, making it very difficult to combat with. By examining the history of bioterrorism, one can learn how military forces utilize this deadly weapon.
One researcher determined that a hand full of biologists and $10,000 could be used to produce biological weapon agents. This stands in starch opposition to the amount of funding, expertise, and obstacles that terrorist would need to overcome to develop their own nuclear programs (Levi, 2007, p.1). Some states have attempted to create their own nuclear weapons; this takes years and hundreds of millions of dollars to accomplish. The materials needed are hard to acquire and special equipment is needed to make the process work. Biological agents on the other hand are, as demonstrated by the researchers assessment, are cheap and relatively easy.
Biological threats to the homeland are one of six strategic challenges outlined in The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) 2014 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review. Biological threats are sometimes viewed as underrated threat to homeland security compared to the threat of terrorism and nuclear weapons. The following will explain the nature the threat of biological weapons pose on the homeland and the ongoing steps the federal government is implementing to meet this challenge.
What’s America’s greatest fear in today’s society? Today, a person’s greatest fear is viruses because viruses are what cause infectious diseases, like HIV, Influenza, and a ton of other diseases. So that is why we use vaccinations. Many ask the questions do Vaccines work? In fact they do! Vaccines are good for a lot of different things, they promote economic growth, extend life expectancy, and they even protect people from spreading or acquiring the disease.