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Biological Warfare
-How biology involved in human conflict-
Biological Warfare
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Biological warfare is the intentional use of
microorganisms, and toxins to produce disease and
death in humans, livestock and crops.
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Biological weapons are defined as:
Microorganisms
Biologically Derived Bioactive Substances (BDBS)
Artificially Designed Biological-Mimicking Substances
Types of biological agents
• Categorised according to mortality rate.
• Category A agents
- Anthrax, Botulin, Smallpox, Ebola, Plague,
Tularemia, Marburg etc.
• Category B agents
- Q fever, Brucellosis, Typhus, Ricin etc.
• Category C agents
- Nipah virus, Hantavirus, Multi-drug resistant
Tuberculosis etc.
History of Biological
Warfare
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The use of biological agents is not new, but
before the 20th century, biological warfare took
three main forms:
Deliberate poisoning of food and water with
infectious material
Use of microorganisms, toxins or animals, living
or dead, in a weapon system
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?
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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 bars in 10 restaurants with Salmonella
typhimurium in the small town of Oregon.
• 2001 anthrax attack
-Envelopes containing Anthrax spores was send
deliberately 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.