Pros And Cons Of Anthrax

Poison Gas/Chemical Warfare usage, while not harming physical structures preventing the collateral damage of homes and buildings, causes a high casualty rate in all living things. It is indescriminate and robs life equally be they related or not to a target of military or strategic importance. Gas usage has been widely considered uncivilized, but the French resorted to its usage in August, 1914 during the first World War in an attempt to rout the Germans. Unfortunately, the Germans were the first to give gas warfare serious development and it became used extensively before the war was over. On the battlefield it prooved effective in eliminating hostile threats in an inhumane way, but this does not make it morally acceptable. In more recent times ISIS has been reported to using Poison Gas in Syria against both military and civilians in an indescriminate manner. This sort of attack ignores international laws as well as inhumanely cause widespread harm. In this day and age, this sort of attack is unnecessary and is why it was outlawed in the first place even back during the first World War.

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 reason for making this law in the United States is because of the serious outbreaks that still happen in schools. When this happens, some students are not able to go to school and are not getting the important education they need. An elementary school in Denver, Colorado had a chickenpox outbreak, just recently, that came from children who were not vaccinated being at school. The school allowed the children not to be vaccinated because the parents of the children didn’t want them to be. The school said there was two unvaccinated children in the school that were experiencing symptoms of chickenpox. (Kovaleski, 2016). Because of this, the school, along with some health officials told the parents of the unvaccinated children, who are also at the school, that their children should not go to school so they did not get exposed to the chickenpox. The children that were vaccinated were able to stay in school. The parents chose not to get their children vaccinated because of religious reasons. So because of this, these unvaccinated children were not at school for about twenty-one days. The chickenpox vaccine, varicella, is 99% effective at preventing the chickenpox infection in children (Kovaleski,2016). The parents of these children knew this but chose to ignore it. With the vaccination requirement law put in place, chickenpox outbreaks would not be an issue because the children that were not vaccinated would not be going to school. The fact is, if a child is not vaccinated they

Currently the only existing forms of smallpox are in two secure laboratories; the CDC facility in Atlanta and Russian State Research Centre for Virology and Biotechnology in Koltsovo. These samples were scheduled to be destroyed in 1993 but there was and still is much debate about what should happen to them.

“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

The symptoms of gastrointestinal anthrax include bloody vomiting, bloody diarrhea, sore throat, and the swelling of the neck and abdomen. Concerning bioterrorism, anthrax is the most likely to be used as it is easily accessible, extremely deadly, and practically untraceable. In addition, plague is a commonly suspected tool in bioterrorism due to its high mortality rate and extremely contagious behavior. It is caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis and is very fatal if not treated quickly. During the Middle Ages, plague wiped out millions of Europeans, but in the modern day world with an effective treatment, plague is much less deadly assuming it is treated quickly.

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.

The sophisticated anthrax project was directed personally by al Qaeda deputy chief Ayman Zawahiri, in parallel to the group's efforts to acquire a nuclear capability; anthrax was likely meant to serve as another means to achieve the same effect as using a nuclear bomb, given doubts that a nuclear option could be successfully procured. (Mowatt-Larssen, 2010, para. 6) Granted, Zawahiri has been killed, but there is no evidence that this project has been canceled. The faulty reasoning that a terrorist group has never acquired a nuclear weapon from a country already possessing them, such as Pakistan, and therefore will never do so is a dangerous line of thought. Prior to 9/11, airliners had never been used as mass homicide weapons either.

Immunizations were created to keep children and adults healthy and safe. Edward Jenner administered the world’s first vaccination known as the smallpox vaccine, which had killed millions of people over the centuries (). Jenner administered the vaccine on an eight year old boy who he exposed to the fluid of a cowpox blisters, the boy developed a blister which eventually went away. Jenner then exposed the boy to the smallpox disease and the boy did not get sick, this led to the smallpox vaccine and the drastic decline in the smallpox disease. Fast-forward three centuries later and the small pox diseases is eradicated do to people receiving the vaccine. Immunizations are extremely important to the world’s overall health. Babies and children are most vulnerable to disease because they are son young and their organs and bodies are growing at a rapid rate. It is important for children to be immunized against vaccine preventable diseases such as: rubella, diphtheria, and pertussis (whooping cough), and a host of other diseases. High vaccination coverage has significantly reduced vaccine-preventable disease morbidity and mortality worldwide, especially among children (Baggs et. al., 2011). While some people focus on the cons of vaccinations, there are many pros to children receiving vaccinations.

Smallpox is among the most feared diseases around the world; it is an infectious disease spread through transmission of the valiola vera virus. In its 12,000 years of recorded history, it has been responsible for more human deaths than any other disease and in the 20th century alone, an estimation of 300-500 million people died from the virus (Oddee, 2007). In the present day, there are no uncontained samples of smallpox, with the only two known remaining specimens of various strains held in high security laboratories in Russia and America (Williams, 2014). There is much debate whether or not the samples should be stored for future use, or whether it should be completely eradicated to minimize immediate risk. In this investigation, the ethical

While domestic and wild animals are the most likely living things to contract anthrax in America, it is very unlikely that anyone or anything will catch it because anthrax vaccinations are very highly recommended in areas where the disease has been found before. For a person to contract the disease from an infected animal, he or she would have to either eat undercooked meat from that animal or get blood or other bodily fluid into an open wound on his or her skin. Other ways to contract the disease are to breathe in the spores, eat or drink something that has been infected with spores, or get spores in a cut or scrape (Anthrax, 2014).

Shortly after the horrifying terrorist attack of 9/11 on the United States, the country was hit with a bioterrorist attack called Anthrax. This agent is extremely dangerous and was a serious threat to the government and country. Anthrax spores are typically found in nature and can last for a long time in the environment when produced in a lab. These spores are known as the silent killer because they can be released without anyone knowing, and can be placed in multiple places such as in food and water. The spores are extremely small and hard to detect.

What is the frequency of Botulinum Toxin? The incidence of the disease is low, but the mortality rate is high if not treated immediately and properly. (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2015) The United States has averaged one hundred forty five reported cases of Botulism a year. Fifteen percent of those being foodborne, sixty-five percent being infant Botulism, and twenty percent being wound Botulism. (CDC, 2015) The frequency of the disease is low, but the mortality rate is high if not treated immediately and properly. Some cases of botulism may be undiagnosed or misdiagnosed because the symptoms are transient or mild, and mimic Guillain-Barre syndrome.

The anthrax attacks of 2001 exposed serious inadequacies in the response of the U.S. public health system to meet such grave threats. The federal government passed the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 and appropriated funds to develop the public health infrastructure. Since 2002, Dr.

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