The Independent: 25th Jan 2011
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Smallpox: One Of Many....
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Apart from smallpox, there are three fatal pathogens that experts fear could be used in biological weapons.

Anthrax:
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First tested as a biological warfare agent by the Japanese during the 1930s in Manchuria. The United States also used the pathogen as a weapon in war until it signed the Biological Weapons Convention in 1972.

It is believed to be stored in the US at the Army Medical Research and Materiel Command at Fort Detrick in Maryland, formerly the centre for the US biological weapons programme. It was supposedly the location where the alleged 2001 anthrax attacker stole the bacteria, killing five people. It is stored in numerous bio-research labs in the US and overseas.

Botulism:
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The botulinum toxin has been a concern as a potential biological warfare agent since World War Two. It is extremely potent, easy to manufacture and transport, as well as being colourless and tasteless when in solution.
Several states are known to have produced botulinum toxin as a biological weapon, including the Soviet Union and Iraq under Saddam Hussein. the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo tried to use botulinum toxin as a weapon in the early 1990s.

In 2008, the US Food and Drug Administration officials issued a rare warning to consumers that the botulinum toxin was suspected in hot dog chili sauce made by Castleberry's Food. The botulism outbreak, the first in a US-made canned food in 33 years, eventually sickened eight and lead to a recall of tens of millions of cans of food.

Plague:
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Plague is a disease that mainly circulates among small animals and their fleas, however the bacteria yersinia pestis can also infect humans and is transmitted through a bite or direct contact of infective materials. Plague is endemic in many countries in Africa, in the former Soviet Union, the Americas and Asia.

In 2008 cases were noted in Algeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, China, Libya, Madagascar, Peru, United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, USA and Zambia. Laboratories play vital roles in surveillance and diagnosis of the disease.



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Russia is criticizing the United States of breaching its obligations
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....over the non-proliferation of weapons and for research into biological weapons and smallpox.

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LSE - Bio-Weapons - Research & Response.

Are The US Holding An Axe Over Their Civilins Re: Bio-Weapons?
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Whatever happened to the bomb? Nuclear weapons never went away, we just stopped paying them any attention. We are now living in "the Second Nuclear Age". Professor Arne Westad of LSE IDEAS explains...

When the Cold War ended, the threat of an all-out war between the superpowers ended with it. Nuclear war apparently went away. But while the political games changed, the nuclear arsenal that had done so much to keep the Cold War from ever turning hot remained very much in place.

In this film, renowned historian of the Cold War Professor Arne Westad explains that not only have hopes for a dismantling of the weapons stockpile failed to be realised, but that the period since the end of the Cold War has seen proliferation occur at such a pace that ours is now referred to as "The Second Nuclear Age." Professor Westad also talks of his prevailing hope for a world free of nuclear weapons.



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D.A. Henderson, Leader in Global Smallpox Eradication
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In the 1960s and '70s, American physician and epidemiologist D.A. Henderson led the global campaign to eradicate smallpox. As VOA's Rosanne Skirble reports, the strategy he deployed changed the way health officials wage war against infectious diseases and biological threats...


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TIMELINE: 'The Peasants Are Revolting'... Again?
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Opposition to the U.S. holding onto the smallpox virus stocks could come "from developing countries, where the memory of smallpox is freshest," according to the Wall Street Journal. The article notes the amount of money the U.S. has dedicated to smallpox countermeasures – some $1.8 billion since 2001 – and details the history of the debate


FEMA & CDC
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The Conspiracy Theorists in the US have encouraged the Authorities... furthering the suspicion of the Relevant Emergency Action Groups. This could lead to similar cases during 19th Century outbreaks....(Videos Below...)
One Theory concerns the to stockpiling of plastic coffins... and has been reported as follows....

Click to view image: 'Stockpiled Coffins' (Click To Enlarge...)

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Mad Cows & Ox-faced Boys - 1806
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The backlash begins: superstition and science combine to attack Jenner's vaccine.

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Public Health, Public Protest - 1840-1890
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The story of how the compulsory vaccination of infants in Britain provoked a furious backlash.

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According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention:
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A bioterrorism attack......
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......is the deliberate release of viruses, bacteria, other germs (agents) used to cause illness or death in people, animals, or plants. These agents are typically found in nature, but it is possible that they could be changed to increase their ability to cause disease, make them resistant to current medicines, or to increase their ability to be spread into the environment. Biological agents can be spread through the air, through water, or in food. Terrorists may use biological agents because they can be extremely difficult to detect and do not cause illness for several hours to several days. Some bioterrorism agents, like the smallpox virus, can be spread from person to person and some, like anthrax, cannot.
Bioterrorism is an attractive weapon because biological agents are relatively easy and inexpensive to obtain or produce, can be easily disseminated, and can cause widespread fear and panic beyond the actual physical damage they can cause.
Military leaders, however, have learned that, as a military asset, bioterrorism has some important limitations; it is difficult to employ a bioweapon in a way that only the enemy is affected and not friendly forces. A biological weapon is useful to terrorists mainly as a method of creating mass panic and disruption to a society.
However, technologists such as Bill Joy have warned of the potential power which genetic engineering might place in the hands of future bio-terrorists.

The use of agents that do not cause harm to humans but disrupt the economy have been discussed. A highly relevant pathogen in this context is the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus, which is capable of causing widespread economic damage and public concern (as witnessed in the 2001 and 2007 FMD outbreaks in the UK), whilst having almost no capacity to infect humans.

History: Early use
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Biological terrorism dates as far back as ancient Ancient Rome, when feces was thrown into faces of enemies. This early version of biological terrorism continued on into the 14th century where the bubonic plague was used to infiltrate enemy cities[citation needed], both by instilling the fear of infection in residences, in hopes that they would evacuate, and also to destroy defending forces that would not yield to the attack. The use of disease as a weapon in this stage of history exhibited a lack of control aggressors had over their own biological weapons.

Primitive medical technology provided limited means of protection for the aggressor and a battle's surrounding geographical regions. After the battle was won, the inability to contain enemies who escaped death led to widespread epidemics affecting not only the enemy forces, but also surrounding regions' inhabitants. Due to the use of these biological weapons, and the apparent lack of medical advancement necessary to defend surrounding regions from them, widespread epidemics such as the bubonic plague quickly moved across all of Europe, destroying a large portion of its population. The victims of biological terrorism in fact became weapons themselves. This was noted in the Middle Ages, but medical advancements had not progressed far enough to prevent the consequences of a weapons use.

Over time, biological warfare became more complex. Countries began to develop weapons which were much more effective, and much less likely to cause infection to the wrong party. One significant enhancement in biological weapon development was the first use of anthrax. Anthrax effectiveness was initially limited to victims of large dosages. This became a weapon of choice because it is easily transferred, has a high mortality rate, and could be easily obtained. Also, variants of the nthrax bacterium can be found all around the world making it the biological weapon of choice in the early 19th century. Another property of anthrax that helped fuel its use as a biological weapon is its poor ability to spread far beyond the targeted population.

Twentieth Century
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By the time World War I began, attempts to use anthrax were directed at animal populations. This generally proved to be ineffective. Shortly after the start of World War I, Germany launched a biological sabotage campaign in the United States, Russia, Romania, and France.[6] At that time, Anton Dilger lived in Germany, but in 1915 he was sent to the United States carrying cultures of glanders, a virulent disease of horses and mules. Dilger set up a laboratory in his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. He used stevedores working the docks in Baltimore to infect horses with glanders while they were waiting to be shipped to Britain. Dilger was under suspicion as being a German agent, but was never arrested. Dilger eventually fled to Madrid, Spain, where he died during the Influenza Pandemic of 1918.[7] In 1916, the Russians arrested a German agent with similar intentions. Germany and its allies infected French cavalry horses and many of Russia’s mules and horses on the Eastern Front. These actions hindered artillery and troop movements, as well as supply convoys.
American biological weapon development began in 1942. President Franklin D. Roosevelt placed George W. Merck in charge of the effort to create a development program. These programs continued until 1969, when by executive order President Richard Nixon shut down all programs related to American offensive use of biological weapons

US President Richard M. Nixon announced his new policy on biological warfare at a ress conference in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on November 25, 1969. “Biological weapons have massive, unpredictable, and potentially uncontrollable consequences,” he declared. “They may produce global epidemics and impair the health of future generations.” He then stated the in recognition of these dangers, the United States had decided to destroy its entire stockpile of biological agents and confine its future biological research program to defensive measures, such as vaccines and field detectors.[9] As the 1970s passed, global efforts to prevent the development of biological weapons and their use were widespread.
On August 10, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon formally transmitted the Biological Weapons Convention to the United States Senate for ratification. In his transmittal, he states: "I am transmitting herewith, for the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons, and on their Destruction, opened for signature at Washington, London and Moscow on April 10, 1972. The text of this Convention is the result of some three years of intensive debate and negotiation at the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament at Geneva and at the United Nations. It provides that the Parties undertake not to develop, produce, stockpile, acquire or retain biological agents or toxins, of types and in quantities that have no justification for peaceful purposes, as well as weapons, equipment and means of delivery designed to use such agents or toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict."
In 1972 police in Chicago arrested two college students, Allen Schwander and Stephen Pera, who had planned to poison the city's water supply with typhoid and other bacteria. Schwander had founded a terrorist group, "R.I.S.E.", while Pera collected and grew cultures from the hospital where he worked. The two men fled to Cuba after being released on bail. Schwander died of natural causes in 1974, while Pera returned to the U.S. in 1975 and was put on probation.
Since that time, efforts to use biological warfare has been more apparent in small radical organizations attempting to create fear in the eyes of large groups. Some efforts have been partially effective in creating fear, due to the lack of visibility
associated with modern biological weapon use by small organizations.

1984 - USA - Rajneeshee bioterror attack
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In Oregon in 1984, followers of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh attempted to control a local election by incapacitating the local population. This was done by infecting salad bars in eleven restaurants, produce in grocery stores, doorknobs, and other public domains with Salmonella typhimurium bacteria in the city of The Dalles, Oregon. The attack infected 751 people with severe food poisoning. However, there were no fatalities. This incident was the first known bioterrorist attack in the United States in the 20th century.

1993 - Japan - Aum Shinrikyo anthrax release in Kameido
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In June 1993 the religious group Aum Shinrikyo released anthrax in Tokyo. Eyewitnesses reported a foul odor. The attack was a total failure, infecting not a single person. This case shows how difficult it is to aerosolize anthrax spores in high concentration.

2001 - USA - Anthrax Attacks
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In September and October 2001, several cases of anthrax broke out in the United States in the 2001 anthrax attacks, caused deliberately. Letters laced with infectious anthrax were delivered to news media offices and the U.S Congress. The letters killed 5. Tests on the anthrax strain used in the attack pointed to a domestic source, possibly from the biological weapons program. Still the attacks provoked efforts to define biodefense and biosecurity, where more limited definitions of biosafety had focused on unintentional or accidental impacts of agricultural and medical technologies.

Types of agents
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Category A
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These high-priority agents pose a risk to national security, can be easily transmitted and disseminated, result in high mortality, have potential major public health impact, may cause public panic, or require special action for public health preparedness.

Tularemia
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Tularemia, or rabbit fever, has a very low fatality rate if treated, but can severely incapacitate. The disease is caused by the Francisella tularensis bacterium, and can be contracted through contact with the fur, inhalation, ingestion of contaminated water or insect bites. Francisella tularensis is very infectious. A small number (10-50 or so organisms) can cause disease. If F. tularensis were used as a weapon, the bacteria would likely be made airborne for exposure by inhalation. People who inhale an infectious aerosol would generally experience severe respiratory illness, including life-threatening pneumonia and systemic infection, if they are not treated. The bacteria that cause tularemia occur widely in nature and could be isolated and grown in quantity in a laboratory, although manufacturing an effective aerosol weapon would require considerable sophistication.

Anthrax
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Anthrax is a non-contagious disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. An anthrax vaccine does exist but requires many injections for stable use. When discovered early anthrax can be cured by administering antibiotics (such as ciprofloxacin). Its first modern incidence in biological warfare were when Scandinavian "freedom fighters" supplied by the German General Staff used anthrax with unknown results against the Imperial Russian Army in Finland in 1916. In 1993, the Aum Shinrikyo used anthrax in an unsuccessful attempt in Tokyo with zero fatalities. Anthrax was used in a series of attacks on the offices of several United States Senators in late 2001. The anthrax was in a powder form and it was delivered by the mail. Anthrax is one of the few biological agents that federal employees have been vaccinated for. The strain used in the 2001 anthrax attack was identical to the strain used by the USAMRIID.

Smallpox
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Smallpox is a highly contagious virus. It is transmitted easily through the atmosphere and has a high mortality rate (20-40%). Smallpox was eradicated in the world in the 1970s, thanks to a worldwide vaccination program. However, some virus samples are still available in Russian and American laboratories. Some believe that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, cultures of smallpox have become available in other countries. Although people born pre-1970 will have been vaccinated for smallpox under the WHO program, the effectiveness of vaccination is limited since the vaccine provides high level of immunity for only 3 to 5 years. Revaccination's protection lasts longer. As a biological weapon smallpox is dangerous because of the highly contagious nature of both the infected and their pox. Also, the infrequency with which vaccines are administered among the general population since the eradication of the disease would leave most people unprotected in the event of an outbreak. Smallpox occurs only in humans, and has no external hosts or vectors.

Botulinum toxin
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Botulinum toxin is one of the deadliest toxins known, and is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. Botulism causes death by respiratory failure and paralysis. Furthermore, the toxin is readily available worldwide due to its cosmetic applications in injections.


Bubonic plague
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Plague is a disease caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium. Rodents are the normal host of plague, and the disease is transmitted to humans by flea bites and occasionally by aerosol in the form of pneumonic plague. The disease has a history of use in biological warfare dating back many centuries, and is considered a threat due to its ease of culture and ability to remain in circulation among local rodents for a long period of time. The weaponized threat comes mainly in the form of pneumonic plague (infection by inhalation)[27] It was the disease that caused the Black Death in Medieval Europe.


Viral hemorrhagic fevers
****** This includes hemorrhagic fevers caused by the Filoviridae (Marburg and Ebola), and by the Arenaviridae (for example the Lassa fever and the Bolivian hemorrhagic fever). Ebola has fatality rates ranging from 50-90%. No cure currently exists, although vaccines are in development. The United States and the erstwhile Soviet Union both investigated the use of Ebola for biological warfare, and the Aum Shinrikyo group possessed cultures of the virus.[citation needed]

Death from Ebola is commonly due to multiple organ failure and hypovolemic shock. Marburg was first discovered in Marburg, Germany. No treatments currently exist aside from supportive care. The arenaviruses have a greatly reduced fatality rate, but a larger presence, chiefly in central Africa and South America.

Category B
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Category B agents are moderately easy to disseminate and have low mortality rates.

Brucellosis (Brucella species)
Epsilon toxin of Clostridium perfringens
Food safety threats (e.g., Salmonella species, E coli O157:H7, Shigella,

Staphylococcus aureus)
Glanders[30] (Burkholderia mallei)
Melioidosis (Burkholderia pseudomallei)
Psittacosis (Chlamydia psittaci)
Q fever (Coxiella burnetii)
Ricin toxin from Ricinus communis (castor beans)
Abrin toxin from Abrus precatorius (Rosary peas)
Staphylococcal enterotoxin B
Typhus (Rickettsia prowazekii)
Viral encephalitis (alphaviruses, e.g.: Venezuelan equine encephalitis, eastern equine encephalitis, western equine encephalitis) Water supply threats (e.g., Vibrio cholerae, Cryptosporidium parvum)

Category C
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Category C agents are emerging pathogens that might be engineered for mass dissemination because availability, easy to produce and disseminate, or may possess high mortality or a major health impact. includes emerging viruses such as the Nipah virus and hantavirus. Planning and response Planning may involve the development of biological identification systems.

Until recently in the United States, most biological defense strategies have been geared to protecting soldiers on the battlefield rather than ordinary people in cities. Financial cutbacks have limited the tracking of disease outbreaks. Some outbreaks, such as food poisoning due to E. coli or Salmonella, could be of either natural or deliberate origin.

Preparedness
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Biological agents are relatively easy to obtain by terrorists and are becoming more threatening in the U.S., and laboratories are working on advanced detection systems to provide early warning, identify contaminated areas and populations at risk, and to facilitate prompt treatment. Methods for predicting the use of biological agents in urban areas as well as assessing the area for the hazards associated with a biological attack are being established in major cities. In addition, forensic technologies are working on identifying biological agents, their geographical origins and/or their initial son. Efforts include decontamination technologies to restore facilities without causing additional environmental

concerns.

Early detection and rapid response to bioterrorism depend on close cooperation between public health authorities and law enforcement; however, such cooperation is currently lacking. National detection assets and vaccine stockpiles are not useful if local and state officials do not have access to them.


Biosurveillance
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In 1999, the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Biomedical Informatics deployed the first automated bioterrorism detection system, called RODS (Real-Time Outbreak Disease Surveillance). RODS is designed to draw collect data from many data sources and use them to perform signal detection, that is, to detect the a possible bioterrorism event at the earliest possible moment. RODS, and other systems like it, collect data from sources including clinic data, laboratory data, and data from over-the-counter drug sales.[37][38] In 2000, Michael Wagner, the codirector of the RODS laboratory, and Ron Aryel, a subcontractor, conceived of the idea of obtaining live data feeds from "non-traditional" (non-health-care) data sources. The RODS laboratory's first efforts eventually led to the establishment of the National Retail Data Monitor, a system which collects data from 20,000 retail locations nation-wide.

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