Biological Attack Essay

Agriculture is a key component and driver of our economy as well as the main food source for US citizens. The US serves as one of the largest exporters of food supplies to nations around the globe. (1) A significant disruption in our exports would have ripple effects within the US and throughout the global health system. The potential impacts of an Agroterrorism attack would be devastating to public health, both nationally and on the global front could be significant. (2)

The rapidity of the agency is hinged on past years of targeted scientific development and experiences, with the main focus on the health of the public health. This proficiencysteers the agency in the direction which is criticalin securing the state and local public health systems (Novick, Morrow, & Mays, 2008).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more commonly known as the CDC, is a major governmental department serving the country in healthcare. Per their official mission statement, The CDC “serves as the national focus for developing and applying disease prevention and control, environmental health, and health promotion and health education activities designed to improve the health of the people of the United States” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Most citizens may think of the CDC in situations not unlike the Ebola or Zika outbreaks, or even in the outlandish ideas of a virus bringing people back from the dead. These Centers across the United States survey disease outbreak,

“Bioterrorism remains a major threat for the United States despite more than $65 billion spent on protecting the country from myriad dangers, the Bipartisan WMD Terrorism Research Center said in its latest report Wednesday. The center's Bio-Response Report Card evaluated U.S. preparedness for countering threats from bioterrorism and found the country remains vulnerable to multiple threats and "largely unprepared for a large-scale bioterrorist attack."”(UPI.com, 2011). There have been over a dozen leading U.S. bio-defense experts that have taken part in figuring out where we are exactly as a county and what the effects of a terroristic attack

Chapter thirteen of the textbook, Biosecurity and Bioterrorism Containing and Preventing Biological Threats, by Jeffrey R. Ryan, examines a wide range of techniques, set up, to help the United States, or U.S., in becoming prepared for a potential biological terrorist attack. A portion of the techniques mentioned throughout chapter thirteen were early warning detection systems. These systems are known as the Autonomous Detection system, and the Biohazard Detection System (Ryan, 327-329). Although both these detection systems have their benefits, the one that has conveyed more consideration over the years is the Biohazard Detection

Beginning in the early 1990’s, a series of governmental actions against biological warfare and bioterrorism were instituted, including the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control Act, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act, and the Defense Authorization Act. These acts were meant to either dissuade bioterrorists or boost the government’s power in defensive biological warfare research (Lanthrop). In April of 2000, the CDC published a guide, Biological and Chemical Terrorism: Strategic Plan for Preparedness and Response, which covered “planning, detection and surveillance, laboratory analysis, emergency response, and communications” (“CDC”). The APIC and CDC have co-written a guide for hospitals who come into contact with biological agents to follow (“CDC”). To sum up these guidebooks, it is important to look out for the following incidences: an irregular rapid increase in disease occurrences, an epidemic curve, an unusual pattern or time for a disease to thrive, clusters of patients from the same area, large numbers of fatal cases, simultaneous reports of animal deaths (Lanthrop).

A governmental concern is that a bioterrorist attack will trigger panic amongst the population. Panic refers to a group response where intense fear causes people to be concerned with only their survival. While actual panic is rare, there are certain factors that could cause panic in the event of a bioterrorist attack, including limited medical resources where “first come, first serve” applies, a perception that there is poor

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

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.

Everyday, people all over the world are suffering from life threatening diseases such as polio, measles, and chicken pox. Diseases may not seem like that big of a problem to us, but that is only because we rarely have to deal with such problems due to our blessing of herd immunity inside American borders. If you are a citizen of the United States, you probably know about the safety and protection we are provided by living here. Consequently, you may attribute our security to government and troops, the protection of our health provided to United States’ citizens is the backbone of what continues to grow our population, better our country, and prevent epidemic outbreaks. Scientists and doctors play a

Terrorist attacks are man-made attacks directed to harm or end the lives of civilians for the terrorist's specific reasons. In the past, these attacks were seen as uncommon and were shocking to the public whenever they did occur; however, after the Trade Center incident of September 11th, the public and the government finally realized that terrorist attacks were no longer simply a rare occurrence, but something to be anticipated and prepared for properly (Pilat, 2005). While shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing and foreign nuclear scares of the Clinton administration, the emphasis of WMD attacks rested on nuclear weapons, it became readily apparent that biological weapons were equally if not more dangerous to the public (Chittaranjan, 1998). Along this line of thought, the federal government enacted the CONPLAN, a plan that outlines the status and treatment of certain terrorist attacks and how these attacks are to be dealt with on a local, state, and national level. This paper will discuss the methods recommended for local responders at the scene of a WMD terrorist attack.

Author Rebecca Katz, a Professor at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, focuses on protecting our health throughout the world when “targeting environmental disasters and preventing diseases.” She mentions the tragedy of 9/11. When 9/11 happened so many hearts were broken, so many lives were taken and the world was just at a complete scare. United States had to take action and protocol to protect the citizens. In order to keep our nation safe, Public Health Preparedness needs and should be followed as a process. I say that because just not the United States but the world needs to know what to do and follow when there are disasters, tragedies’ whether they are little or big. Katz mention, “Citizens will

Rising level of dissatisfaction amongst minority and youths has led to increasing use of chemical, biological and radiological agents in order to persuade government and public opinions. Response towards chemical, biological and radiological threats preparedness is very complex task, and it withholds certain challenges towards public health and other health care facility staff.

Protecting the public’s health historically has been a state and local responsibility. However, the growing threat of bioterrorism has highlighted the importance of a strong public health infrastructure to the nation’s homeland security and has focused increased attention on the preparedness of the public health system (Frist, 2011). Since the 2001 anthrax attacks Congress has passed new legislation to increase the strength of the nation’s public health system thus the funding has also rapidly increased to meet the potential demand. There is an ongoing debate however, as to what level of contribution local, state, and federal agency’s feel is an appropriate level of ongoing public health investments.

The world has experienced a total of four pandemics within the twentieth century. These pandemics, as horrific and deadly as they are, have brought so much more positive advances to our health care system and how we prepare for biological threats. Although we are in the twenty-first century and we have advanced so far in healthcare, there is still the possibility of a deadly pandemic.