What is Bioterrorism? The history of bioterrorism goes back as far as human warfare, in which there have always been efforts to use germs and disease as weapons. In the late 20th century, violent non-state actors began seeking to acquire or develop biological agents to use in attacks on civilians
Bioterrorism refers to the intentional release of toxic biological agents to harm and terrorize civilians, in the name of a political or other cause.The U.S. Center for Disease Control has classified the viruses, bacteria and toxins that could be used in an attack. Category A Biological Diseases are those most likely to do the most damage. They include:
- Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis)
- Botulism (Clostridium botulinum toxin)
- The Plague (Yersinia pestis)
- Smallpox (Variola major)
- Tularemia (Francisella tularensis)
- Hemorrahagic fever, due to Ebola Virus or Marburg Virus
The use of biological agents as bioweapons has its roots in ancient times, when the concepts of bacteria, toxin or virus were not known yet. Over 2,000 years ago, rudimentary techniques of biological warfare resolved the first disputes among people. Hand by hand with the evolution of modern science (especially in the 18th century), the possibility of using biological agents as bioweapons has been refined. In the last few decades, the development of innovative biotechnology techniques has provided the knowledge to create more aggressive bioweapons. These new organisms cause great concern, because they can produce devastating and completely unexpected effects, of the same level or even higher than the most dangerous wild type biological agents.
The use of biological agents in warfare isn’t new. Pre-modern armies tried to use naturally occurring diseases to their advantage.
In 1346, the Tartar (or Tatar) army tried to turn the Plague to their advantage in their siege of the port city of Kaffa, which was then a part of Genoa. Dying from plague themselves, army members attached bodies and heads of the deceased to catapults, then landed them–and the ‘black death’ they carried–inside the walled city of their victims. A plague epidemic ensued and the city surrendered to the Mongol forces.
In the French Indian Wars of the late 18th century, English general Sir Jeffrey Amherst reportedly distributed smallpox-infected blankets to Native American forces (who had sided with the French).
States, not terrorists, have been the biggest developers of biological warfare programs. In the twentieth century, Japan, Germany, the (former) Soviet Union, Iraq, the United States and Great Britain all had biological warfare development plans.
There have been a few confirmed bioterrorism attacks. In 1984, the Rajneesh cult in the United States made hundreds ill with food poisoning when they put Salmonella typhimorium in an Oregon salad bar. In 1993, the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo sprayed anthrax from a rooftop.
Bioweapons is a thorny issue due their destructive capabilities, and for the potential to generate panic and terror among the affected people. Used since pre-Christian times, bioweapons have resulted in the decimation of whole populations and have changed the geopolitics of several places. In this paper, a summary of the main wars and terrorist activities carried out using bioweapons over the time is presented. In addition, the main biological warfare agents and related pathologies are considered, as according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) priority classification. The emergence of potentially more destructive biological agents, due to the widespread introduction of biotechnology, is also analysed.
DaSilva (1999) defined biological warfare as the intentional use of microorganisms, and toxins, generally of microbial, plant or animal origin, to produce diseases and deaths among humans, livestock and crops. Biological warfare and bioterrorism are very complex subjects, mainly due to the many agents that can be used as weapons and for the wide range of ways for dissemination into the environment and population. A biological event provides for the presence of at least two actors: one or more pathogens (bacteria, viruses or toxins) and a vehicle for their dissemination. In addition to the high spread capacity and lethality of potential biological agents, their invisibility and extremely difficult short-term detection makes it impossible for immediate diagnosis until the subsequent increase of infections. In fact, most biological weapons (except, for example, toxins and bacterial spores) have a unique quality that other non-conventional weapons (such as chemical and radiological) do Orlando Cenciarelli et al. 112 Defence S&T Tech. Bull. not have; biological agents are able to multiply in the host organism and be transmitted in turn to new hosts, generating in this way with unpredictable effects on the population, both in terms of number of victims and geographical spread (Rotz et al., 2002; Zalini, 2010; Vogel, 2012; Tucker, 2013).
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