Potential Biological Weapons Threats

Potential biological weapons threats.

The list of agents that could pose the greatest public health risk in the event of a bioterrorist attack is short. However, although short, the list includes agents that, if acquired and properly disseminated, could cause a difficult public health challenge in terms of our ability to limit the numbers of casualties and control the damage to our cities and nation. The use of biological weapons h...

Plant-pathogenic bacteria as biological weapons - real threats?

At present, much attention is being given to the potential of plant pathogens, including plant-pathogenic bacteria, as biological weapons/bioterror weapons. These two terms are sometimes used interchangeably and there is need for care in their application. It has been claimed that clandestine introduction of certain plant-pathogenic bacteria could cause such crop losses as to impact so signific...

Living Weapons: Biological Weapons and International Security

In the summer of 1996, as a (much younger) Army infectious disease physician, I headed off to a new assignment with the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, Maryland. It was a heady time to be entering the niche fi eld of biodefense. Five years before the events of 9/11 and the subsequent “Amerithrax” attacks would become an integral part of the ...

Confronting Biological Weapons

The New World was ravaged by smallpox for several centuries after the Spanish conquest. Jenner’s discovery of the smallpox vaccine made possible the prevention and control of smallpox epidemics. In response to a large outbreak of smallpox in the Spanish colonies, King Charles IV appointed Francisco Xavier de Balmis to lead an expedition that would introduce Jenner’s vaccine to these colonies. D...

Subtle Biological Weapons