Biological Weapons & Bioterrorism

History

Biological warfare has been practiced repeatedly throughout history.

Before the 20th century, the use of biological agents took three
major forms:
•Deliberate of and with infectious material

•Use of microorganisms, toxins or animals, living or dead, in a

weapon system
•Use of biologically inoculated fabrics
Biological weapons are so lethal that one gram of purifiedtcould kill
10 million people. It is said that it is 3 million times more deadly
than sarin.
The ancient world
 Hittite texts of 1500-1200 B.C, victims of plague driven into
enemy lands.
 Assyrians knew of ergot, a parasitic fungus of rye which produces
ergotism when ingested,
According to Homer’s epic poems about the legendary Trojan War, the Iliad and
the Odyssey, spears and arrows were tipped with poison.
During the First Sacred War in Greece, (590 BC), Athens and the Amphictionic
League poisoned the water supply with the toxic plant hellebore.
The Roman commander Manius Aquillus poisoned the wells (130 BC)
4th century BC Scythian archers tipped their arrow tips with snake venom. There
are numerous other instances of the use of plant toxins, venoms, and other
poisonous substances to create biological weapons in antiquity.
In 184 B.C, Hannibal of Carthage had clay pots filled with venomous snakes and
instructed his soldiers to throw the pots onto the decks of Pergamene ships.
In AD 198, the city of Hatra (near Mosul, Iraq) repulsed the Roman army led by
Septimius Severus by hurling clay pots filled with live scorpions at them.
Medieval biological warfare
 Mongol armies and merchant caravans probably inadvertently brought bubonic
plague from central Asia to the Middle East and Europe

 In 1346, the bodies of Mongol warriors of the Golden Horde who had died of
plague were thrown over the walls of the besieged Crimean city of Kaffa –
Black Death in Europe.

In 1340, during the Hundred Years' War, the attackers catapulted decomposing
animals into the besieged area.

 In 1422, Karlstein Castle in Bohemia, Hussite attackers used catapults to throw

dead bodies and 2000 carriage-loads of dung over the walls.

 In 1710, when Russian forces attacked the Swedes by flinging plague-infected

corpses over the city walls of Reval (Tallinn).

 In1785 siege of La Calle, Tunisian forces flung diseased clothing into the city.
Modern times
The 18th century
 The Native American population was decimated after contact with the Old World

due to the introduction of many different fatal diseases.

There are two documented cases of germ warfare. The first, at Fort Pitt on June
24, 1763, Ecuyer gave representatives of the besieging Delawares two

blankets and a handkerchief that had been exposed to smallpox, hoping to

spread the disease to the Natives.

The roots of diseases that killed millions of indigenous peoples in the Americas
can be traced back to Eurasians living for millennia in close proximity with
domesticated animals. Without long contact with domesticated animals,
indigenous Americans had no resistance to plague, measles, tuberculosis,
smallpox or most influenza strains.
Modern times
The 19th century
 In 1834 Cambridge Diarist Richard Henry Dana visited San Francisco on a
merchant ship. His ship traded many items including blankets with Mexicans and
Russians who had established outposts on the northern side of the San Francisco
Bay.
Local histories document that the California smallpox epidemic began at the
Russian
fort soon after they left. Blankets were a popular trading item, and the cheapest
source of them was second-hand blankets which were often contaminated.
During the American Civil War, General Sherman reported that Confederate forces
shot farm animals in ponds upon which the Union depended for drinking water.
This would have made the water unpleasant to drink, although the actual health
risks from dead bodies of humans and animals which did not die of disease are
minimal.
Jack London in his story '"Yah! Yah! Yah!"' describes a punitive European
expedition to a Pacific island deliberately exposing the Polynesian population to
Measles, of which many of them died s:South Sea Tales/"Yah! Yah! Yah!". While
much of the material for London's South Sea Tales is derived from his personal
experience in the region, it is not certain that this particular incident is historical.
Modern times
The 12th century
 During the First World War, Germany pursued an ambitious biological warfare
program. Using diplomatic pouches and couriers.

In Finland, Scandinavian freedom fighters mounted on reindeer placed ampules of

anthrax in stables of Russian horses in 1916 & supplied to the German military
attache in Bucharest.

German intelligence officer and US citizen Dr. Anton Casimir Dilger established a
secret lab in the basement of his sister's home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, that
produced Glanders which was used to infect livestock

German agents also employed Glanders in the port of Buenos Aires and also tried to
ruin wheat harvests with a destructive fungus.
 DEFINITION
“ The Military Use of Living Organisms or

Their Toxic Products, That Can Cause Death

to Human Beings, Animals or Crops ”

7
 WORKING PRICIPLE
• Infectious Agents Enter Body Through:
– Lungs

– Digestive Tract

– Skin

– Mucous Membranes

• Overcome Body’s Immune System

8
 BIO AGENTS
• Bacteria

• Virus

• Rickettsia

• Toxin

• Genetically Altered Organisms

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 TYPES OF BACTERIA
• Anthrax • Melioidosis

• Brucellosis • Plague

• Cholera • Tularemia

• Glanders • Typhoid Fever

10
 TYPES OF VIRUS
• Chikungunya Fever
• Junin or Argentine Fever
• Congo Hemorrhagic Fever
• Rift Valley Fever
• Dengue Fever
• Smallpox Fever
• Ebola Fever
• Venezuelan Equine Strain
• Marbury Fever
• Yellow Fever 11
 TYPES OF RICKETTSIA
• Endemic Typhus
– Murine Typhus

– Scrub Typhus

– Prowazki Typhus

• Q Fever

• Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

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 TYPES OF TOXIN
• Botulinum

• Ricin

• Saxitoxin

• Enterotoxin

• Myotoxin
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 BIO WEAPONS

DELIVERY
BIO AGENT SYSTEM

MUNITION MET CONDITIONS

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 PROPERTIES OF BIO AGENTS
• Toxin
– Short incubation period
– Effective over small area
– Incapacitating ( few causalities )

• Virus & Bacteria

– Long incubation period
– Effective over wide area
– Lethal ( massive causalities )
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 FORMS OF BIO AGENTS
• Liquid
– Easy to prepare
– Simple equipment
– Difficult to disseminate

• Solid
– Complex to prepare
– Sophisticated equipment
– Easy to disseminate
16
 MUNITIONS & DELIVERY

• Point source

• Line source

• Alternative method
– Oral route

– Dermal exposure

– Vector transmission
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 MET CONDITIONS

• Appropriate altitude

– 3 to 15 ft AGL

• Favorable wind speed

– 5 to 25 MPH

• Temperature inversion
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 COUNTER MEASURES
• Intelligence (Prevention)
• Detection
• Training
• Protection
– Personal
– Collective
• Decontamination
• Treatment
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 COUNTER MEASURES
• Detection by
– Analysis of atmosphere
– Air
– Water
– Soil
– Monitoring abnormal trends in
– Humans
– Animals
– Plants
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 COUNTER MEASURES
• Training
– Military personnel (all)
– Formation of special units
– Extensive rehearsals
• Awareness among civilians
– Different symptoms
– Protection equipment
– Defensive drills
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 COUNTER MEASURES
• Protection
– Personal
– Injections, gas masks
– Protective suits

22
 COUNTER MEASURES
• Protection
– Collective
– Isolation Chambers
– Special Ambulances
– Field Hospitals

23
 COUNTER MEASURES
• Decontamination
– Collective
– Isolation Chambers
– Special Ambulances
– Field Hospitals

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 COUNTER MEASURES
• Treatment
– Collective
– Isolation Chambers
– Special Ambulances
– Field Hospitals

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 EMPLOYMENT
• Strategic
– Ports
– Industrial areas
– Naval operations near land
– Rear area command centers
• Tactical
– Troop assembly areas
– Airfields 26
 STRENGTH
• Small quantity causes mass casualties

• Cheaper as compare to others

• Effects can stay for a long time

• Cause paranoia among adversaries

• Difficult to detect & differentiate

• Lack of effective antidotes 27

 LIMITATIONS
• Difficult to deliver
• Spread is unpredictable
• Atmosphere Dependence
• Delayed effects
• High chances of accidental release
• Poor storage survival
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 COST COMPARISON

• Conventional weapons $2000 / km2

• Nuclear weapons $ 800 / km2

• Chemical weapons $ 600 / km2

• Biological weapons $1.00 / km2

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 History of Biological
Warfare - Globally

• 1925 Geneva Protocol

• 1972 Biological Weapons
Convention
» signed by 103 nations
• 1975 Geneva Conventions
Ratified
PROTOCOL FOR THE PROHIBITION OF
THE USE IN WAR OF ASPHYXIATING,
POISONOUS OR OTHER GASES, AND OF
BACTERIOLOGICAL METHODS OF
WARFARE

Opened for signature: 17 June

1925, entered into force: 8
February 1928

Geneva Protocol
 Biological Weapons
Convention
Convention on the Prohibition of the
Development, Production and Stockpiling of
Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons
and on Their Destruction
Signed at Washington, London, and Moscow
April 10, 1972
 Joint Statement by President George W. Bush and
President Vladimir on Cooperation Against Bioterrorism
November 13, 2001
At Shanghai, we resolved to enhance cooperation in
combating new terrorist threats, including those involving
weapons of mass destruction.
We agree that, as a key element of our cooperation to
counter the threat of terrorist use of biological materials,
officials and experts of the United States and Russia will
work together on means for countering the threat of
bioterrorism, now faced by all nations, and on related
health measures, including preventive ones, treatment and
possible consequence management.
 What role can Russia play in Combating
Infectious Diseases And Bioterrorism Threats

The threat of biological weapons and their use

in bioterrorism have increased. At the same
time there are huge improvements in the
knowledge of infectious diseases. How do we
contain the threat of biological warfare (BW)
and bioterrorism and continue to make
progress in eliminating and treating infectious
diseases?

S.V. Netesov, L.S. Sandakhchiev, VECTOR, Novosibirsk

 In the past 20 years, more than 30 previously
unknown infectious agents have been identified.
They causing such diseases as AIDS, hemorrhagic
fevers, antibiotic resistant bacterial strains, hepatitis C,
etc., A significant part of these infectious diseases
result from the ability of microorganisms to mutate
and adapt to humans and their medical treatment
environment of medical prophylaxes and treatments.
These properties, combined with increasing human
mobility and migration and the increasing number of
people with suppressed immunity, and several other
factors, make the emergence of new diseases and
variants more likely.
Biological Warfare Nonproliferation
and Threat Reduction
The issues of nonproliferation and threat
reduction of biological weapons based on
infectious agents are different from other weapons
of mass destruction (WMD).
We believe that the major nonproliferation and
threat reduction efforts should focus on already
working with emerging pathogens research
centers, which might present a source of expertise
for potential bioterrorists.
The aims of the Federal Center of
Hygiene and Epidemiology

• Sanitary and Epidemiological measures

in case of situation with the outbreaks of
infectious diseases or during disasters;

• Statistical monitoring for control of

infectious diseases at the federal level,
reporting;
 Terrorism
• Is an unlawful act of violence

• Intimidates governments or societies

• Goal is to achieve political, religious or

ideological objectives

Arthur H. Garrison
 Prevention of Terrorism

• Primary prevention:
– Education!!!
– Understand the differences in cultures,
religions, beliefs and human behaviors
– Think of the peace, freedom and equality
of all human beings, not just “my group of
people”
– Eliminate the root of terrorism
 Prevention of Terrorism

• Secondary prevention:
– Establish surveillance and monitoring
system on terrorism attack
– Improve protective system for citizens
 Prevention of Terrorism

• Tertiary prevention
– Early detection of the sources
– Prevent the extension of impairments
– Rescue the survivors
– Console the rest of the population
Proportion of death from terrorism
in total death in the United States
Average From From all Proportion
death per terrorism causes (%)
year
1990’s 8 2534203 0.0003

2001 2893 2404624 0.12

 Risk of Dying
Smoking 10 cigarettes a day One in 200
All natural causes age 40 One in 850
Road accident One in 8,000
Playing soccer One in 25,000
Homicide One in 100,000
Terrorism attack in 2001 One in 100,000
Hit by lightning One in 10,000,000
Terrorism attack in 1990’s One in 50,000,000

Penguin Books, 1987

 Death Rate of Various Causes in
2000 USA and that from Terrorism
Heart disease* One in 400
Cancer * One in 500
Cerebrovascular diseases* One in 2,000
Accidents * One in 3,000
Diabetes* One in 4,000
Suicide* One in 10,000
Homicide* One in 20,000
Terrorism in 2001 One in 100,000
Terrorism in 1990’s One in 50,000,000
 Why did terrorism draw
considerable attention in 2001?
• The risk of dying from terrorism was
extremely low in 1990’s, and was still relatively
low compared with some diseases in 2001
• But the death rate increased by 500 times in
2001 due to Sept. 11
• Overall the death rate of terrorism has not
been high
• Despite the low risk, shock, surprise and fear
engulfed the United States and world
 Conclusion
• Terrorism is unlawful act
• Terrorism has a long history of being used
to achieve political, religious and ideological
objectives
• Terrorism can be conducted through
firearms, explosive devices and biological,
chemical, nuclear materials
• Even through the events of 2001, the risk of
dying from terrorism has remained much
lower than that from motor vehicles,
smoking, and alcoholic beverage.