NCJ Number
190975
Date Published
2001
Length
44 pages
Annotation
This chapter examines biological substances used as weapons and the concept of biological warfare.
Abstract
Biological terrorism is the use of etiological agents (disease) to cause harm or kill a population, food, and/or livestock. It includes the use of organisms such as bacteria, viruses, and rickettsia and the use of products of organisms - toxins. Biological weapons (BW) are more deadly and financially efficient than chemical agents or even nuclear weapons. They are relatively inexpensive, easy to manufacture, and dispersal devices can be disguised as agricultural or pest-control sprayers. It is very difficult, if not impossible, for an intelligence service to detect research, production, or transportation of these agents for rogue intentions. It is equally hard to defend against them once they have been employed because of the inability to recognize a delivery. The chapter discusses characteristics, presentation, clinical effects, detection, diagnosis, therapy, and prophylaxis for botulinum toxins, clostridium toxins, ricin, saxitoxin, staphylococcal enterotoxin, tetrodotoxin, trichothecene myocotoxins (T2), anthrax, brucellosis, cholera, ebola virus, plague, Q fever, smallpox, tularemia, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, viral hemorrhagic fevers, and staphylococcal enterotoxin B. The chapter claims that, while the probability of a high-impact or widespread attack using BW is low, the yield from such an event could be devastating. It recommends that communities study the planning and response phases of confronting a bioterrorism event so they can maintain a level of response effectiveness. Figures, notes