Deadliest Outbreak: Sverkivsk

An investigation was necessary to find the cause of the outbreak, and how to stop it from continuing to spread. The campus clinic was interested in testing the following nine patients: Sue, Jill, Anthony, Wanda, Maggie, Maria, Arnie, Marco, and Alvin. All of the students have similar symptoms and agreed to being tested except for Alvin.

The Demon in the Freezer is a 2002 non-fiction book on the biological weapon agents smallpox and anthrax and how the American government develops defensive measures against them. It was written by journalist Richard Preston, also author of the best-selling book The Hot Zone (1994), about outbreaks of Ebola virus in Africa and Reston, Virginia and the US government's response to them.

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.

A scream echoed throughout the harsh winter air, where it passed a frail man tied to a post whose eyes drooped and arms rotted. The noise flew past a few soldiers loading a biological weapon into a plane. The scream landed upon the ears of a scientist who stood inches away from that horrible cry, and continued his work, uncaring of a heart beating at his fingertips. He was the sole spectator and sole perpetrator of this person’s death through live dissection. This was what happened in Japan’s biological warfare experimental camp from 1935 to 1945. The camp was made possible by the Manchurian Incident which is when the Japanese bombed their own property and claimed it was an attack by the Chinese, prompting the Japanese conquest of Manchuria. However, Japan yearned to conquer more nations. Sensing a war with Manchuria’s north

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.

“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

“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

Defence, U. D. (2016, 01 15). News Transcript - Department of Defense Press Briefing by Army Officials in the Pentagon Briefing Room on the Investigation into the Inadvertent Shipment from Dugway Proving Ground of Live Anthrax Spores. Retrieved from U.S. Department of Defence: http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/643396/department-of-defense-press-briefing-by-army-officials-in-the-pentagon-briefing

I recently read an article written in The NEWYORKER called The Deadliest Virus by Michael Specter. The article talked about the Avian Flu virus, also known as “bird flu”. In the article, Specter interviewed many people, but the most important person, in my opinion, is a virologist who conducted research on the Avian Flu, Ron Fouchier. This article raised many ethical questions. The questions are as followed: Should research be conducted on this virus? Does Fouchier’s research pose a threat? Does the risk of the work outweigh the benefits of the research?

The United states faced one of the deadliest epidemics in US history from 1918-1919, killing nearly 675,000 americans. When it first started, it killed nearly half the US soldiers who fought in the war. By August of 1918, Philadelphia and Boston were already infected by influenza. Then by October 1919, influenza had killed nearly 200,000 americans.

The quote “Anthrax, or Bacillus anthracis, is a single-celled- bacterial micro-organisms that form spores, and that grows explosively through lymph and blood connects with biology through the study of viruses. Biological systems interact in many different ways, as we see from how Anthrax and other viruses like is effect the biological systems of the body. The passage that I read made me feel unsafe, thinking that it was only fourteen years ago when this situation occurred, makes it feel like it can and will happen to us today. One thing that I’ve learned is that history repeats itself, and I would not be surprised if this history repeated itself.

One of the greatest horrors of WWII, Unit 731, is often overlooked when talking about WWII atrocities, perhaps because it is not taught in the secondary education curriculum. Unit 731 was a top secret Japanese medical unit during the cold war that focused on producing biological and bacteriological weapons during WWII. While biological and bacteriological are, by many, considered to be inhumane in nature, Unit 731 went even further by partaking in human experimentation in order to achieve greater knowledge about these weapons, and to gain knowledge about anything that might

I never even knew about the whole anthrax scared and the one major anthrax incident in the u.s following days of 9\11 attacks there were letters laced with live antrax adn sent to memebers of congress, 5 people were killed and 17 others were infected.The fbi traced back the mailing to a an army lab in maryland. That's a big problem and very shocking to know a U.s armylab in maryland sent some live anthrax to members of the congress.

Terrorism and the United States A cloud of anthrax spores looming in the sky of San Diego California

Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) is an acute infectious disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium. The most common victims of anthrax are warm-blooded animals, but it can also infect humans. Anthrax spores can be produced in a powdery form for biological warfare. When inhaled by humans, these particles cause respiratory failure and death within a week. Because anthrax is considered to be a potential agent for use in biological warfare, the Department of Defense (DOD), in 1998, announced it would begin a systematic vaccination of all U.S. military personnel. (DOD, 1998) Anthrax infection occurs in three forms: cutaneous (skin), inhalation, and gastrointestinal. B. anthracis spores can survive in the soil for many years and handling animal