Download 40991

Emerging Infectious Diseases
and Bioterrorism
Dr Peter Washer
Southern Association for the History of Medicine and
Science.
Birmingham, AL, USA 6-7 March 2009.
[email protected]
‘Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases’
May 1st 1989, NIH and Rockefeller
University sponsored a
conference on ‘Emerging
Viruses’
Spurred the formation of an IoM
committee on ‘Emerging
Infectious Diseases
In 1992, the IoM published
Emerging Infections:
Microbial Threats to Health in the
US
Tropical Medicine
Like ‘Emerging infections’ the creation of the category of
‘Tropical Medicine’ served political aims
Emerging infectious diseases and bioterror
Washer, Peter (2010)
Emerging Infectious Diseases
and Society
New York, Palgrave Macmillan
Chapter 7 ‘The Bioterrorism
Myth’
4
Plague
Athenians have accused
the Spartans of infecting
their water springs during
the great plague of Athens
(430 BC)
The Black Death in 14th
Europe was claimed to be
a result of Jews poisoning
the wells
Existing anti-Semitism
was fanned and Jews
scapegoated
Smallpox
There is evidence that
Europeans gave Native
Americans blankets they
believed infected with
smallpox
To what extent this was
the cause of smallpox
epidemics is disputed
The USSR
1979 - 64 people died
after an accidental release
of anthrax from a secret
Soviet plant at Sverdlovsk
1992 - President Yeltsin
confirmed Soviet and later
the Russian government
had engaged in illegal
development of biological
agents through the
‘Biopreparat’
Iraq’s biological weapons programme
Iraq admitted it had
biological weapons before
the first Gulf war
They claimed to have
destroyed these after the
first Gulf war
Those research and
production facilities that
survived the war were
demolished by UNSCOM
in 1996
Aum Shinriko (chemical attacks)
1995 - The Aum Shinrikiyo
cult used Sarin gas to
attack the Tokyo subway
killing 12 and injuring
5,000
Despite huge financial
resources, expertise and
the will to do so, they
failed to use infectious
diseases as a terrorist
weapon
The growing interest in bioterrorism before 9/11
Life imitating art
The anthrax letters
Anthrax as the bridge between 9/11 and Iraq
“This is evidence, not
conjecture. This is true”
Colin Powell before the
UN Security Council
February 5th 2003
The National Security Strategy of the USA 2002
Proposed strengthening
emergency management
systems to make the
country better able to
manage terrorism and
infectious disease
outbreaks
The document connects
terror, bioterror, and
infection of the body and
of the nation by foreign
bodies
The effect on funding bioterrorism preparedness on public health
Does the US $1.5 billion
budget for bioterrorism
preparedness strengthen the
public health infrastructure?
Or is the spending
disproportionate in
comparison to federal support
for inclusive health coverage?
The securitisation of migration
Since 9/11 Congress has
tightened US border
controls and increased
surveillance of immigrants
Immigrants not only seen
as a risk to the health of
US citizens, but also as a
security risk
Conclusion
Before AIDS, infectious diseases were thought
to be a ‘thing of the past’
Since the mid 1990s, infectious diseases have
been recast as ‘emerging’ (from the poor to
the rich)
Since the late 1990s, this ‘emerging infectious
diseases’ paradigm has been transposed
onto the issues around bioterrorism
As with historical accusations of bioterror, the
concerns about infection and contamination
feed into and reflect existing political agenda
and social concerns
References
See notes page of presentation