Biological Weapons : Use And Use Of Bioweapons

Spanish flu, millions died within a year, healthy young soldiers, not the really young or weak; some consider HIV/AIDS as pandemic

In the war of 1763 between England and France for control of North America, smallpox was used to defeat the Native American population. British soldiers intentionally delivered blankets infected with smallpox scabs and pustules to the population they needed to defeat. The highly susceptible population was easily defeated as there were extensive numbers of Native American deaths. This use of smallpox gives reason as to why smallpox is considered the first germ warfare agent (Sherman, 2007).

In 2001, the discovery of three letters containing anthrax spores caused widespread panic that swept across the US. Thousands of people flocked to clinics to be tested for possible infection and hundreds were affected by the shutdown of workplaces and public facilities. Though only a

Though originally the plan of the attack was to capture the city, it ended with massive death both in the city, and millions of deaths in the surrounding countries. So although biological warfare is considered a modern tactic, one of the most devastating attacks ever involved biological warfare at the siege of Caffa in 1347.

As far back as the American Civil War, allegations have been made regarding the use of biological weapons. During the Civil War, both sides accused the other of using the smallpox virus to cause disease among enemy forces. (Hooker, MD, emedicinehealth.com 2014).

The Rajneeshee bioterrorism attack is the perfect example of terrorist or an extremist group taking matters in their own hands. It seems that the purpose and method of delivery was well thought out and was not irrational, Diseases have always been the enemy to man and animals, using viruses as weapons clearly presents a threat to the public and to national security.

Bioterrorism did not begin with 2001 anthrax attacks; it has occurred throughout history and its threat to

Some diseases have been regionally eliminated or under way like smallpox, typhoid, polio and typhus they no longer exist

In fact, the former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director James Woolsey has stated that creating a biological weapon is as easy as producing beer and that even a good chemistry high school student is capable of creating a biological weapon (Gerstein, 2010). Moreover, with the increase of natural viruses such as Ebola, terrorists could carry out a biological attack without the need of having to use any technology (Cenciarelli et al., 2015). They could simply travel to the country where a transmittable natural virus is occurring and they could get infected on purpose; then, all they have to do is travel back to their target location and intentionally spread the transmittable virus among large crowds of people (Cenciarelli et al.,

The two ways a pathogen can enter the body is through direct contact transmission or through indirect contact transmission. A direct contact transmission occurs when infected blood or body fluids from one person enter another person’s body at the correct entry site. A direct contact

The Anthrax attacks killed five and sickened at least 17. There was pressure from the president for the FBI to solve the Anthrax crime. The first suspect for the anthrax file was Steven Jay Hatfill, an American

The volume of materials that may be weaponized from this category is immense and each requires varying degrees of knowledge, skills, and abilities to create and employ. After reading this week’s course material and a small amount of cursory research on my own, I chose to use the bacterium, Yersinia pestis which can be employed as a biological agent and causes either pneumonic, bubonic, or septicemic plague depending on the method of exposure (Inglesby, T. V., Dennis, D. T., Henderson, D. A., Bartlett, J. G., Ascher, M. S., Eitzen, E., …Tonat, K., 2000, p2282.)

breast mile, semen [CDC, 2014]) which makes it slightly harder to be transmitted from person

After thoroughly reading this week’s course material, choose one potential weapon from one of the chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) categories (i.e. you could select Tularemia, which could be a potential biological weapon). Write in your own words your assessment of your selected potential weapon's characteristics, accessibility, consequences of terrorists using that weapon based in researched facts. Please provide any support information required.

Biological weapons are a widely used source of terror. The definition of a biological weapon is a harmful biological agent (as a pathogenic microorganism or a neurotoxin) used as a weapon to cause death or disease usually on a large scale (“Biological Weapon,” The Merriam- Webster Dictionary). There are numerous substances used as biological weapons. Some include Glanders, Botulism, and Brucellosis. Biological weapons consist of a kind of substance or disease that is used to launch an attack on a large population of people.