What is "bioterrorism"?

NAVIGATION

What is "Bioterorrism"?

Reasons for Bioterrorism

Common Agents of Bioterrorism

Historical Uses of Bioterrorism

Informative Links

Summary of Assignment

What is “Bioterrorism”?        Next Section          Back To Top

Bioterrorism is the intentional or threatened use of disease-causing microorganisms, viruses, or toxins to cause harm or death through infection or contamination of the environment.

Bioterrorism generally targets large groups of people at once and is intended to incapacitate its victims before eventually killing them.

Reasons for Bioterrorism        Next Section          Back To Top

Although biological warfare is sometimes used by certain government institutions, bioterrorism is specifically associated with terrorist groups or religious or political extremist organizations.

Since biological warfare can easily go undetected prior to actually causing disease symptoms in its victims, bioterrorism is usually utilized by groups whose attacks are covert or subversive.

Unlike conventional weapons (i.e. guns and knives), weapons of bioterrorism do not cause instantaneous harm to victims.

For example, an aerosol can or even a perfume atomizer can be used to disperse pathogens into the air in a shopping mall, but the people who come into contact with the pathogens may not experience symptoms until a few minutes later (Mycotoxins) or even up to 40 days later (Q-Fever).

The incubation period of biological warfare agents, or the time during which the victim shows no symptoms, allows the assailants to escape or the scene of the attack before anyone is aware of the crime.

Common Agents of Bioterrorism         Next Section          Back To Top

Agent Type	Name	Incubation Period
Bacterial	Anthrax	1-5 days
	Plague	1-14 days
	Cholera	12-72 hours
	Tularemia	3-6 days
	Brucellosis	3 days-(several weeks)
	Q-Fever	10-40 days
Viral	Smallpox	7-17 days
	Viral encephalitides	2-6 days
	Viral hemorrhagic fevers	3-10 days
Biological Toxins	Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B	2-12 hours
	Ricin	12-24 hours
	Botulinum Toxin	(hours)-(several days)
	Mycotoxins	(minutes)

( ) = indistinct time period

Historical Uses of Bioterrorism        Next Section          Back To Top

300 BC – Animal corpses were used to contaminate wells (as noted by Greek, Roman, & Persian literature).

18th Century AD – The British infect Native Americans with smallpox by giving them the blankets of smallpox patients during the French and Indian War.

1863 – A surgeon from the Confederate South attempts to bring yellow-fever infected clothes to the Union during the United States Civil War.

World War I – Germany allegedly spread plague in St. Petersburg, infect mules in Mesopotamia and horses of the French Cavalry with the disease known as glanders.

September 2001-November 2001 – 23 confirmed or suspected cases of anthrax occur in the US after a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.

Informative Links        Next Section          Back To Top
eMedicine: Biological Warfare Agents
South Dakota Department of Health: Bioterrorism
Background on Biological Warfare

Summary of Assignment          Back To Top

For this assignment, I found it most effective to convey the information to the reader by using an actual website. This website makes use of links to help the reader navigate easily to each particular section of the text. Also, the links in the "Informative Links" section gives the reader access to other sources if they wish to conduct further research on the topic or verify the information presented on this site.

One of the challenges I faced in the making of this site was compiling the table found in the "Common Agents of Bioterrorism" section. I had to transfer information that I had gathered about the various agents of bioterrorism into a table format, which involved searching through a longer webpage (eMedicine: Biological Warfare Agents) for the incubation periods of each agent. Once I had made a list of the incubation periods for all the agents, creating the table was relatively easy.