NCJ Number
189847
Journal
Emerging Infectious Diseases Volume: 6 Issue: 6 Dated: November/December 2000 Pages: 1-10
Date Published
2000
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This article outlines verification measures for investigating disease outbreaks under a Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.
Abstract
The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention prohibits the development, production, and stockpiling of biological weapons agents or delivery devices for anything other than peaceful purposes. One of the verification measures in the final stages of negotiation will be international investigation of disease outbreaks that suggest a violation of the convention. These are outbreaks that may be caused by the use of biological weapons or release of harmful agents from a facility conducting prohibited work. The draft protocol calls for requests to investigate outbreaks that include “detailed evidence, and other information, and analysis that such an outbreak(s) of disease is not naturally occurring and is directly related to activities prohibited by the Convention.” Suspicious outbreaks can be grouped into four main categories, depending on the nature of the suspicions they provoke. They may be thought to be the result of covert biological attack by another nation, criminal or terrorist attack, covert attack by a nation on a subnational group within its borders, or escape of a biological agent from a facility developing prohibited weapons. The negotiated protocol is expected to establish the Organization for the Prohibition of Biological Weapons, which will administer certain aspects of the protocol, including investigations. Investigation of most suspicious outbreaks will be initiated by national or international public health agencies. Advice from public health professionals will be needed, as the detailed operating procedures are developed to implement the necessarily general diplomatic language of the new protocol. 19 references.