ORIGIN OF BIOTERRORISM

History of Biowarfare

As early as 600 BC, infectious diseases were recognized for their potential impact on people and armies when the Assyrians poisoned enemy wells with rye ergot, a fungus that causes convulsions when ingested. Such a strategy of polluting wells and other sources of water with infectious substances continued to be used in many European wars, the American Civil War, and other 20th-century conflicts .

The Rise of Bioterrorism

Even after the ratification of the BWC, a large number of countries went on to develop, produce and test biological agents for military purposes. Since the 1980s, terrorist groups have increasingly considered bioweapons as a highly destabilizing tool for civil society and economy.

The large scale advent of biotechnology and the reduced difficulty in production of genetically modified organisms have made the potential creation of multi-drug resistant pathogens with enhanced virulence factors possible. The use of biological agents in the last decades is mainly attributable to terrorist groups, more or less isolated, who used bioweapons as a strategy to defend extremist religious ideas by striking civilian populations or sensible government targets.

Humans, regrettably, have used all the available technologies for destruction of enemies as well as for beneficial purposes throughout history. Biological agents are one of
them.

History dates back to the eighteenth century (1754 – 1767) when British distributed blankets used by small pox patients to the Native Americans and the mortality in some tribes were as high as 50%. Japanese also used smallpox weapon against the Mongolians & Chinese during II world war.

The preferred agents are bacillus anthracis, yersinia pestis, small pox virus or any genetically engineered organism that can survive, express or perpetuate in the natural environment.

BWs are clubbed with the nuclear and chemical weapons. However, bws are very different, while nuclear & chemical attacks cause their damage maximally immediately, biological attacks become manifest after sometime.

The attraction for bws is attributed to their following features:
• Low production costs - called the "poor man's atomic bomb/ "poor man's weapons of mass destruction",
• Easy access to a wide range of disease producing biological agents.
• Non -detection by routine security system and easy transportation.
• High fatality: biological toxins are among the most toxic agents known e.g. the quantity of botox in the dot of an ‘i’ is enough to kill ~10 people

BWs have the added advantage of destroying an enemy while leaving his infrastructure intact as booty for the winner.

Tricothecenes, a type of Mycotoxin, is supposed to have been used in the famous yellow rain incident, which still is a subject of debate with no conclusive established proof, though it's thought to be implicated at least in some.

A case was documented in the US where a gastroenterologist was convicted of attempting a second-degree murder by injecting his former girlfriend with blood or blood-products obtained from an HIV-1 (Human immunodeficiency virus-1) infected patient under his care.
Other recent well publicized biocrimes include use of “ricin” in Europe for the assassination of a Bulgarian exile, a laboratory worker intentionally infecting co-workers in Texas with Shigella dysenteriae, and use of Salmonella Typhimurium in Oregon by contaminating salad bars in local restaurants which was politically motivated. The most well known attack of bioterrorism in the present century is the use of anthrax spores in New York in October 2001 .

Bioterrorism Agent Categories

Bioterrorism agents can be separated into three categories, depending on how easily they can be spread and the severity of illness or death they cause. Category A agents are considered the highest risk and Category C agents are those that are considered emerging threats for disease.

Category A

These high priority agents include organisms or toxins that pose the highest risk to the public and national security because:
• They can be easily spread or transmitted from person to person
• They result in high death rates and have the potential for major public health impact
• They might cause public panic and social disruption
• They require special action for public health preparedness.

Category B

• These agents are the second highest priority because:
• They are moderately easy to spread
• They result in moderate illness rates and low death rates
• They require specific enhancements of CDC's laboratory capacity and enhanced disease monitoring.

Category C

These third highest priority agents include emerging pathogens that could be engineered for mass spread in the future because:
• They are easily available
• They are easily produced and spread
• They have potential for high morbidity and mortality rates and major health impact.

MICROBIOLOGY AND CLINICAL ASPECTS OF POSSIBLE AGENTS OF BIOTERRORISM

Botulinum neurotoxin:

Botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) is derived from the Clostridium botulinum bacterium and causes botulism. It is the most potent toxic substance currently known.

Exploitation as a bioweapon in the past

BoNT was initially used as a biowarfare agent by the Japanese during World War II. Thereafter, it was produced by other countries as well, including the USA, USSR, and Iraq.

In the 1990s, the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo attempted to launch several terror attacks with BoNT,
but all of them failed.
Given the ease of BoNT production, there is a risk of its future use for malicious purposes.

Toxin source