Special Topic: Bioterrorism After completing this topic, students should be able to: • explain the main concerns of the four microorganisms mostly likely to be used in a bioterrorist attack and the diseases caused by these microorganisms. • explain why society is not helpless to the threat of biological warfare. 1
Biological warfare & Bioterrorism Biological warfare (germ warfare) - use of microbes (germs) to incapacitate or kill large numbers of soldiers. Bioterrorism - the intentional or threatened use of biological agents (e.g., bacteria, viruses, toxins) to cause fear, injury or death to a population - perpetrator has a political or ideological agenda. Focus of lecture: - how and why biological agents have been used as weapons of war and terror (historical, modern), - characteristics of the "top four" biological agents likely to be used by terrorists, - roles of the governmental agencies and the popular press in protecting and educating the public from the threat of bioterrorism. 2
Fear of bioterrorism The press contributes can contribute to the public's fear of bioterrorism. March 2005. Collision between a Fedex truck and a car. The packages were not damaged and the public was never in any danger. That didn't stop the press anyway. The truck was carrying five packages for the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health, the federal virology lab, which contained samples of anthrax, E. coli, salmonella, tuberculosis, influenza and a sexually transmitted disease. Officials with the lab said the viruses were not in forms that could be lethal. They described the anthrax as level 2 and level 3, which apparently isn't as dangerous as the more severe form of the disease. The article went on to describe the different forms of anthrax disease (and was not in context with the earlier part of the article). 3 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/truck-carrying-anthrax-involved-in-crash-1.520985