Danger Of Bioterrorism

A number of infectious pathogens exist which could be used to carry out an agroterror attack. The U.S Agricultural Bioterrorism Protection Act of 2002 provides the official list (6) of potential animal pathogens which emergency planners use as a “threat” list for potential response. This list is based upon a list of agents published by the Office International des Epizooites (OIE) (7) also known as the World Organization for Animal Health.

In closing, governments need to know that even though the possibility of a biological or chemical attack is remote, they have a responsibility to do everything in their power to curb the opportunities, guard, and take action. For the Japanese government their test is to establish how much to organize for a low probability attack, all while safeguarding against on more likely events with significant, but not inevitably disastrous penalties. But the Japanese also need to make sure they understand that terrorist groups don’t always use biological weapons for their attacks, because they often have other alternatives that will better serve the function of the terrorist organization. Through the risk management perspectives of John Parachini, if the Japanese government can

“Terrorism” was the 5th top searched term on Google from 2001 to 2002. Caroline B. Cooney describes what and how a bioterrorism attack can happen in New York City in her book, Code Orange. A Student at St. Raphael's private school, Mitty Blake is falling behind in his schoolwork, so he has to do his biology paper on the smallpox virus. When Mitty Blake finds an old book on variola major or smallpox, he finds an envelope with 100 year old scabs from the 1904 Boston smallpox epidemic.Accidentally, Mitty gets the dust of them in his system. After realizing that he could have the monster of smallpox, he emails main biological research centers and they get forwarded to the FBI, CDC and maybe a terrorist organization. Susan B. Cooney touches on three main points of terrorism, the fear of terrorism after 9/11, the FBI’s ability to track individuals and bioterrorism.

During its 2002 symposium on the future of public health, the Harvard School of Public Health recalled several incidents that show anthrax to be a genuine bioterrorism threat: 1979 incidents of inhalation of anthrax in Sverdlovsk (Hamburg, et al., 2002, p. 131); the deliberate release of anthrax only weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks (Hamburg, et al., 2002, p. 124); additional incidents of anthrax being deliberately released in 2001 (Hamburg, et al., 2002, p. 127). In addition, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published a 2006 report mentioning a 2004 anthrax incident in the Dirksen Senate Office Building (CNA Corporation, 2006, p. 1). In addition, there are numerous reports of white powder being received by business and governmental officials. Consequently, there is a realistic possibility of an anthrax (or Ricin) bioterrorist attack in the future and the average individual should know how to respond if he/she receives mysterious white powder in an envelope.

The first major bioterror event in the United States--the anthrax attacks in October 2001--was a clarion call for scientists who work with "hot" agents to find ways of protecting civilian populations against biological weapons. In The Demon in the Freezer, his first nonfiction book since The Hot Zone, a #1 New York Times bestseller, Richard Preston takes us into the heart of Usamriid, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, once the headquarters of the U.S. biological weapons program and now the epicenter of national biodefense.

“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

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).

These biological agents could be viruses, toxins, bacteria, etc. Agents could be used in war or terrorist attacks. Also, they could be modified to cause extreme diseases and disorders, according to The Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It makes bioterrorism even more tempting to use as it is easy and inexpensive to produce, disseminate and can cause a more widespread panic than other acts of terrorism (1).

It is important to understand the references to history that the author uses, in order to properly read and understand this articles intentions. First the author references the anthrax attack carried out by terrorists in 2001. These attacks consisted of letters with anthrax spores inside of them, which were then mailed different news offices and the offices of two U.S. Senators. The attacks killed five people and infected nearly 20 others. Guinan 's

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

Bruce Ivins, other than his suicide when things homing on to him with the FBI, is the anthrax killer, exposing and estimated thirty thousand people to the deadly spores, killing five, leaving its illness with seventeen others. (Shactman) The problem with chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear terrorism, also know as CBRN, is that, in threats where conventional explosives are not used, chemical, biological, and radiological threats are hard to detect and prevent, and after-the-fact, are, usually, impossible, expensive, or extensive in labor and use of high-tech, cutting-edge equipment, which is complicated and needs technical expertise, to make the clean-up take very long in chemical and radiological threats, and is nearly impossible to collect evidence for examination in a laboratory in chemical and biological threats if aerosolized or in a vapor form, which dissipates into the atmosphere, environment, and plants around it (Center For Excellence in Emergency

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.

The US right now is taking military and counterterrorism actions, but it is not enough to stop them. Bioterrorism is harder to stop because you won't know whether it is a deliberate outbreak by terrorist group or a natural outbreak of disease (Okoth 2). Bio Attacks are not only deadly to people but also the environment according to Naftali Okoth “dual threats of emerging infections and bioterrorism would pose a major conceptual and technical challenges for a regions intelligence

This research paper is broken into four sections. The first section, Bioterrorism Response in a Major Metropolitan Area, provides