Biological Warfare

-How biology involved in human conflict-

Biological Warfare

• Biological warfare is the intentional use of microorganisms, and toxins to produce disease and death in humans, livestock and crops.

• Biological weapons are defined as: 1. Microorganisms 2. Biologically Derived Bioactive Substances (BDBS) 3. Artificially Designed Biological-Mimicking Substances

Types of biological agents• Categorised according to mortality rate. • Category A agents - Anthrax, Botulin, Smallpox, Ebola, Plague, Tularemia, M

arburg etc.• Category B agents - Q fever, Brucellosis, Typhus, Ricin etc. • Category C agents - Nipah virus, Hantavirus, Multi-drug resistant Tuberculosi

s etc.

History of Biological Warfare

• The use of biological agents is not new, but before the 20th century, biological warfare took three main forms:

1. Deliberate poisoning of food and water with infectious material

2. Use of microorganisms, toxins or animals, living or dead, in a weapon system

3. Use of biologically inoculated fabrics

Why biological weapons?

• Cheap and easy to manufacture. • Biological weapons cause fear and chaos among

people as anyone could be affected by it. • Large quantities of biological weapons can, in

most cases, be produced in a short period • A single microbial biological weapon can, because

it reproduces in the host, theoretically produce the desired detrimental outcome in a target host.

Why not biological weapons?

• Difficulty in maintaining quality control and sufficient containment during growth and harvesting of agents.

• Effective delivery problems. • Poor storage survival. • Difficult to control once released.• Difficulty of protecting the workers.

Human Experiments

• There are number of human experiments carried out associated with biological weapon testing during World War 2.

• Such as Unit 731 in Japanese army, German army At the Auschwitz concentration camp and Operation White coat by US army.

Banning Biological weapons• Geneva Protocol -Use of biological weapons was banned in

international law by the Geneva Protocol of 1925.• Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention -The 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons

Convention extended the ban to almost all production, storage and transport of any types of biological weapons.

Bio-terrorism• There are number of bio-terrorism recently. • 1984 Rajneeshee salmonella attack -attempted to control a local election by infecting salad b

ars in 10 restaurants with Salmonella typhimurium in the small town of Oregon.

• 2001 anthrax attack -Envelopes containing Anthrax spores was send deliberat

ely to newspaper companies and US senators. and cause 5 Fatalities in 17 infections.

Summary

• Biological warfare is the intentional use of microorganisms, and toxins to human or live stocks.

• It is cheap and easy way to manufacture the weapon, but also very unstable and ineffective.

• Development of the biological weapon involves inhuman experiments.

• Use or production of biological weapon is currently banned by Geneva convention and Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.

• Increasing number of bioterrorism incidences are problem.