Bioterrorism Research Paper

Infectious epidemics and pandemics have happened all through mankind's history. “They remain the prime cause of death worldwide and will not be conquered during our lifetimes.” The flu of 1918 was one of the deadliest epidemics in history. “It infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide–about one-third of the planet’s population at the time–and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims. More than 25 percent of the U.S. population became sick, and some 675,000 Americans died during the pandemic.” No one knew how the virus spread, there were no antibiotics to fight it, and no flu shots to prevent it. In the final year of World War I, it struck terror in the hearts of people all across Europe and left more death in its wake than the combined military actions of the combatants. “It killed more Americans in a few months than World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the

“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

In 1983, a disease known as CNSB-1 was spotted in South America. By 1985 the disease has traveled to north america by airplane. When 1990 came around, every major city has been affected. Quarantine zones were established in the poorest parts or town. The disease was cured in 1995 but it still claimed the lives of 49,920,000 people in america. Progress had slowed down to a crawl and the economy was left in shambles after the U.S government put all of it’s resources in destroying CNSB-1 before it destroyed their nation. 1998 comes along and the quarantine zones are still around, only now filled with a new type or sickness.Terrorist gangs inhabit them and live by randomly raiding surrounding communities. For those who live in such areas, the only

Another issue on the preparedness for the next pandemic, is the lackadaisical attitude of some individuals in society and the wealth of misinformation shared on social media, etc., by the non-scientific public. Ben Goldacre said it best in 'Bad Science '. "We

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

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.

Plague, also known as Yesirnia pestis, has wreaked havoc since the first documented outbreak in the 6th century, along with changing the course of history. Although bubonic plague is the most common form of plague, pneumonic plague is the more fatal form of the bacteria. It is the only form that has been successfully aerosolized by man and has the potential of taking down a mass of people in days. If used as a bioweapon, it would cause major damage. This paper is designed to inform you of the history, the facts, and the precautions needed to prevent a bioterrorist attack. In 1970, The World Health Organization estimated that 50 kg, or 110 lb, of Y. pestis sprayed over a city would infect 150,000 individuals and

Attention Getter: Have you ever wondered what would life be like if there were no responses to disease outbreaks? Every day we are exposed to microorganisms that may or may not be fatal to our health. Imagine getting an Eagle Alert saying that there has been a recent outbreak of Ebola in the Hattiesburg area. What would you do? It is not up to use to handle the situation but it is up to the World Health Organization (WHO) to respond to a terrifying event such as that.

Bioterrorism is purposefully releasing biological agent toxins to cause harm and terrorize people. Bioterrorism was first thought of somewhere in the 1340’s, this was when diseased horse corpses were catapulted over castle walls in France. Germ warfare was also used in the medieval times in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; human bodies were infected with the plague and used as ammunition in central Europe. During World War I Germany had attempted to infect the Allies using anthrax through livestock, which they failed in doing. By Germany attempting this it caused for Geneva Protocol, this is the restriction of chemical and biological weapons being used during war. However, the first bioterrorism occurred in the 1984 in the United States, members of the cult ha sprinkled salmonella on salad bars around Wasco County. There were 750 cases of food poisoning and another 45 cases of people being hospitalized. Many terrorist prefer to use biological agents instead of any other weapon for a few reasons that are; they can easily get there hands on them, they are inexpensive, it is hard to detect, they are easy to make and deliver.

The date is April 24, 2005. The time is approximately 8:30 am. Somewhere on the New York City subway system a briefcase sits, apparently forgotten. Inside the briefcase, an electronic oscillator flips over, marking the passage of thirtieth minute since its owner abdicated. In the busy subway station no one notices the small hissing noise that is produced as an odorless, tasteless aerosol is slowly released into the air. Within minutes, the pathogen contained in the gas has spread throughout the station, and New York has unwittingly played host to the first recorded incidence of bioterrorism.

Seth Berkley: Do you worry about what is going to kill you? Heart disease, Cancer, a car accident? Most of us worry about things we can’t control like war, terrorism, the tragic earthquake that just occurred in Haiti. But what really threatens humanity? A few years ago, Professor Vaclav Smil tied to calculate the probability of sudden disasters large enough to change history. He called these “massively fatal discontinuities.” Meaning that they could kill up to 100 million people in the next 50 years. He looked at the odds of another world war, of a massive volcanic eruption, even of an asteroid hitting the Earth. But he placed the likelihood of one such event, above all others, at close to 100 percent and that is a severe flu pandemic. Now,

This picture highlights the effect, in America, of the small Ebola outbreak that occurred in 2014-2015. All ages were well aware of Ebola because it became nationally discussed. It had grown into a fear to obtain Ebola and die. We as Americans have developed an extremely oblivious conscious to what the deathly issues are.

I enjoyed reading your post for this weeks discussion. I too feel that our food and water supply is an honest target when it comes to a biological attack. Many today go without food and water here in America today and as a result they commit crimes to fulfill a fundamental requirement. No excuses here, but wha would you do to feed your family, now think about that on a larger scale if the food supply got cut, destroyed or it was contaminated in some way. The amount of recovery time to recoup could be up to months, but people still need to eat so the wave of fear would be substantial. After taking an emergency management course here through AMU, we had an honest discussion about our personal level of readiness. It was an eye opener. I

Since the beginning, humanity has overcome diseases that could potentially wipe out the human race. From earliest forms diseases such as measles to modern day pandemics such as AIDS, mankind has survived throughout history. Though diseases have plagued society it was only after the outbreak of the HIV virus in 1981 that brought to attention the dangers of incurable diseases. Before this time, with World War I and II, and the Cold War, public fear was based on the potential chance of a nuclear destruction of the planet. Since the outbreak of the HIV in 1981, public anxiety has been displaced from nuclear winter to that of microbial plagues. The enemy was now no longer a visible foe but that of an unknown contagion with no knowable cure. Recently in 2009, with the outbreak of the Swine Flu (H1N1) Virus public alert of the dangers of contagions increased. Science Fiction films since the outbreak of HIV have reflected the public fear of the unknown and unbeatable contagions. Films such as Outbreak (1995), Contagion (2011) and the recent World War Z (2013) have shown audiences a creative window of possible outcomes of an epidemic and what man would do in order to stop the