Biological Warfare | Bioterrorism | Biowar | Biological Agents | Essay

Biological warfare | Biowar | Biological Agents | Bioterrorism

•   Introduction
•  What is biological warfare?
•  What are biological weapons?
•  What are different types of biological warfare agents?
•  How are biological weapons delivered and detected?
•  Protective measures to combat the epidemics
•  Coronavirus (COVID19); A lab prepared bio-weapon or natural epidemic?
• History of biological weapons used
•  Biological weapons proliferation laws
•  Conclusion

 Bio warfare can now be considered 5th generation warfare and is becoming lethal day by day. This is a voiceless menace, more dangerous than nuclear warfare as the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill or incapacitate humans, animals or plants is an act of war. Biological weapons may be employed in various ways to gain a strategic or tactical advantage over the enemy, either by threats or by actual deployments. This virus may be lethal or non-lethal and may be targeted against a single individual, a group of people, or even an entire population but unfortunately, it paralyses society. They may be developed, acquired, stockpiled or deployed by nation-states or by non-national groups. In the latter case, or if a nation-state uses it clandestinely, it may also be considered bio-terrorism.

This bio-warfare is undoubtedly a weapon of war that acts mercilessly and even its creator does not come out unscathed. Biological warfare (BW) is defined as “the use of pathogens or toxins against human, animal, or plant populations by a state or sub-state actor to achieve military aims” (Zilinskas and Carus, 2002). Biological weapons are microorganisms like virus, bacteria, fungi, or other toxins that are produced and released deliberately to cause disease and death in humans, animals or plants. A common #definition of biological warfare is “the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi with the intent to kill or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war.” 

A number of variables come into play when assessing which agents have the potential to be weaponized, particularly to a militarily significant level.
 • Stability of the agent in atmosphere
 • Lethality, transmissible or contagiousness of the agent- Available preventive measures and treatment
 • Long-term economic loss or area denial
 • Can protect own population
 • Detectability of the agent perpetrator

Based on all of these factors, there are five broad categories of agents that might be weaponized—with the first three being the primary focus of military BW attention.
Bacteria: These are single-cell organisms that cause diseases such as anthrax, brucellosis, tularemia, and plague. Bacteria exist naturally in a variety of places, to include in living animals, plants, and in decaying and even dead matter, as well as in soil and the air. Bacteria can survive in any kind of environment. But vaccines to treat Bacteria are available.
 Viruses. These are extremely small intracellular parasites or micro-organisms. They are about one percent the size of bacteria. Although they generally require a living host to reproduce and can be vulnerable to environmental degradation, they are still a viable candidate for weaponization. Viruses cause diseases such as Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis (VEE), smallpox, or hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola and Marburg.
Toxins. Toxins are derived from organisms, although they can be synthetically produced. Toxins can be weaponized, for example, by extracting poisons from venomous animals or plants or microorganisms. They cannot reproduce and thus are not contagious.
 Rickettsia. Rickettsia are similar to both bacteria and viruses. They resemble bacteria but are actually parasites that reproduce inside cells. While rickettsia are small, relatively stable, and could be spread as an aerosol, they are also difficult to produce in any quantity and effective treatments exist to counter their effects. They also are not easily transmissible and thus are not generally considered a threat for BW agent production. Typhus and Q fever are examples of diseases caused by rickettsia organisms.
Fungi. These are pathogens that have some potential to be weaponized. For example, mycotoxin-producing fungi could possibly be used against humans since they are relatively environmentally hardy and could be released in aerosol form. More likely would be weaponizing fungi for use to destroy crops and create economic and other materiel damage to an adversary, such as cereal rust.

Although there are more than 1,200 biological agents that could be used to cause illness or death, relatively few possess the necessary characteristics to make them ideal candidates for biological warfare or terrorism agents. The ideal biological agents are relatively easy to acquire, process, and use. Only small amounts (on the order of pounds and often less) would be needed to kill or incapacitate hundreds of thousands of people in a metropolitan area. Biological warfare agents are easy to hide and difficult to detect or protect against. They are invisible, odorless, tasteless, and can be spread silently. Biological warfare agents can be disseminated in various ways.

• Through the air by aerosol sprays: To be an effective biological weapon, airborne germs must be dispersed as fine particles. To be infected, a person must breathe a sufficient quantity of particles into the lungs to cause illness.
•  Used in explosives (artillery, missiles, detonated bombs): The use of an explosive device to deliver and spread biological agents is not as effective as the delivery by aerosol. This is because agents tend to be destroyed by the blast, typically leaving less than 5% of the agent capable of causing disease.
•  Put into food or water: Contamination of a city's water supplies requires an unrealistically large amount of an agent as well as introduction into the water after it passes through a regional treatment facility.
•  Absorbed through or injected into the skin: This method might be ideal for assassination, but is not likely to be used to cause mass casualties.

 Biological agents could either be found in the environment using advanced detection devices, after specific testing or by a doctor reporting a medical diagnosis of an illness caused by an agent. Animals may also be early victims and shouldn't be overlooked.

•  Early detection of a biological agent in the environment allows for early and specific treatment and time enough to treat others who were exposed with protective medications. Currently, the U.S. Department of Defense is evaluating devices to detect clouds of biological warfare agents in the air.
•  Doctors must be able to identify early victims and recognize patterns of disease. If unusual symptoms, a large numbers of people with symptoms, dead animals, or other inconsistent medical findings are noted, a biological warfare attack should be suspected. Doctors report these patterns to public health officials.

Protective measures can be taken against biological warfare agents. These should be started early (if enough warning is received) but definitely once it is suspected that a biological agent has been used. To read more about protective clothing, see Personal Protective Equipment.

•  Masks: Currently, available masks such as the military gas mask or high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter masks used for tuberculosis exposure filter out most biological warfare particles delivered through the air. However, the face seals on ill-fitting masks often leak. For a mask to fit properly, it must be fitted to a person's face.
•  Clothing: Most biological agents in the air do not penetrate unbroken skin, and few organisms stick to skin or clothing. After an aerosol attack, the simple removal of clothing eliminates a great majority of surface contamination. Thorough showering with soap and water removes 99.99% of the few organisms that may be left on the victim's skin.
•  Medical protection: Health care professionals treating victims of biological warfare may not need special suits but should use latex gloves and take other precautions such as wearing gowns and masks with protective eye shields. Victims would be isolated in private rooms while receiving treatment.
•  •Antibiotics: Victims of biological warfare might be given antibiotics orally (pills) or through an IV, even before the specific agent is identified.
• Quarantine- Self isolation- self Distancing; What today immunologists and the WHO are suggesting was also suggested by Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) some 1400 years back. The practice of adopting good hygiene, quarantining in order to remain protected from global contagion, covering face while sneezing, was advised by Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) to his followers years back. In connection of adopting good hygiene, Islam lays great emphasis on observing cleanliness under all circumstances. Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) once said: cleanliness is part of the faith”.The WHO is now advising the same as practiced by Muslims to the populace to wash hands as many times as possible to ward off COVID-19. Interestingly, this was also practiced by Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SAW). “Whenever the messenger of Allah sneezed, he would cover his mouth with his hand or a piece of cloth.” He gave instructions on what to do if there is an outbreak of any infectious #epidemic. Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Awf  #said: “I heard the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) say: “If you hear that (the plague) is in a land, do not go there, and if it breaks out in a land where you are, do not leave, fleeing from it.”
• Vaccinations: Currently, protective vaccines (given as shots) are available for anthrax, Q fever, yellow fever, and smallpox. The widespread immunization of nonmilitary personnel has not been recommended by any governmental agency so far. Immune protection against ricin and staphylococcal toxins may also be possible in the near future. 

On December 31, 2019, the World Health Organization's’s (WHO) China office heard the first reports of a previously-unknown virus behind a number of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, a city in Eastern China with a population of over 11 million.

#Virus like the novel coronavirus are shells holding genetic material.
(Image: © Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images)

In January 2020, a #Novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was identified as the cause of an outbreak of viral pneumonia in Wuhan, China. The disease, later named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), subsequently spread globally. In the first three months after COVID-19 emerged nearly 1 million people were infected and 50,000 died.

NIAID COVID-19 research efforts build on earlier research on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), which also are caused by coronaviruses. SARS was first reported in Asia in February 2003, though cases subsequently were tracked to November 2002. SARS quickly spread to 26 countries before being contained after about four months. More than 8,000 people fell ill from SARS and 774 died. Since 2004, there have been no reported SARS cases. 

What started as an epidemic mainly limited to China has now become a truly global pandemic. There have now been over 1,432,577 confirmed cases and 82,195 deaths, according the #John Hopkins University Covid-19 dashboard, which collates information from national and international health authorities. The disease has been detected in more than 200 countries and territories, with Italy, the US and Spain experiencing the most widespread outbreaks outside of China. In the UK, there have been 55,242 confirmed cases and 6,159 deaths as of April 7.

Pakistan’s tally of the virus had reached 21, which included a secondary contact case. The secondary contact case means that the victim had no travel history, and he must have contracted the virus from one of the people who traveled to Pakistan from another country.

 The wife of Canada’s prime minister has tested positive for the virus. The Italian chief of army staff has tested positive. An adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader has died of COVID-19. Among other notables, Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, have tested positive for the virus.  Stock markets around the world have since seen an unprecedented meltdown. The question essentially boils down to one point: was COVID-19 developed in a laboratory, and is it being used as a biological weapon to contain the formidable Chinese economic hegemony?

A related question is whether the virus was made in the laboratory purposefully, or did the virus made in the laboratory accidentally escape the laboratory. The lab-escape theory is so far the more widely accepted theory.  

#Steven Mosher, a social scientist, summarizes why he believes COVID-19 may have been accidentally spread by China’s National Biosafety Laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where researchers have studied bat coronaviruses. Mosher says that the lab is less than 10 miles away from the seafood market where a cluster of COVID-19 cases was first discovered.  There were reports that in the 2003 SARS outbreak, the SARS-CoV virus escaped from virology labs in China.In the past, these viruses have spread through wild bats that infect another type of animal —an intermediate host — that then spreads it to humans. SARS-CoV, for example, was transmitted from bats to civets to humans, while camels were an intermediate host in MERS, according to Quanta.

The U.S. and Chinese governments now appear more interested in taunting each other than cooperating to contain the damage wreaked by COVID-19. That’s bad news for the whole world, because if they worked together to limit further human and economic damage from this crisis and to prevent future viral emergencies from going global, there is much they could do.

U.S.-China relations have now reached their lowest point. Both countries have suffered large-scale loss of life and a sharp economic slowdown, but political officials in both countries are working to protect their own domestic standing by blaming the other’s government. President Trump has taken to calling COVID-19 the “Chinese virus,” while senior Chinese officials and state media have pushed a ludicrous theory that the U.S. created the virus and planted it in China last fall.

This animosity didn't begin, of course, with coronavirus. Trump has waged a tariff war against China for most of his presidency and threatened the survival of Huawei, the telecom giant central to China’s strategy for state-of-the-art 5G technologies.

#History The use of biological agents is not a new concept, and history is filled with examples of their use.
Attempts to use biological warfare agents date back to antiquity. Scythian archers infected their arrows by dipping them in decomposing bodies or in blood mixed with manure as far back as 400 BC.
During the battle of Tortona in the 12th century AD, Barbarossa used the bodies of dead and decomposing soldiers to poison wells. During the siege of Kaffa in the 14th century AD, the attacking Tatar forces hurled plague-infected corpses into the city in an attempt to cause an epidemic within enemy forces. 
During the French and Indian War in the 18th century AD, British forces under the direction of Sir Jeffrey Amherst gave blankets that had been used by smallpox victims to the Native Americans in a plan to spread the disease.

During World War I, the German Army developed anthrax, glanders, cholera, and a wheat fungus specifically for use as biological weapons. They allegedly spread plague in St. Petersburg, Russia, infected mules with glanders in Mesopotamia, and attempted to do the same with the horses of the French Cavalry.

During World War II, Japanese forces operated a secret biological warfare research facility in Manchuria. They exposed more than 3,000 victims to plague, anthrax, syphilis, and other agents.

In 1979, an accidental release of anthrax from a weapons facility in Sverdlovsk, USSR, killed at least 66 people. The Russian government claimed these deaths were due to infected meat and maintained this position until 1992, when Russian President Boris Yeltsin finally admitted to the accident.

In September and October of 1984, 751 people were intentionally infected with Salmonella, an agent that causes food poisoning, when followers of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh contaminated restaurant salad bars in Oregon.
In 1994, a Japanese sect of the Aum Shinrikyo cult attempted an aerosolized (sprayed into the air) release of anthrax from the tops of buildings in Tokyo.


The #Geneva #Protocol of 1925 was signed by 108 nations. This was the first multilateral agreement that extended prohibition of chemical agents to biological agents but has nothing to say about production, storage or transfer. Later treaties did cover these aspects — the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Unfortunately, no method for verification of compliance was addressed. Moreover, A number of countries submitted reservations when becoming parties to the Geneva Protocol, declaring that they only regarded the non-use obligations as applying to other parties and that these obligations would cease to apply if the prohibited weapons were used against them.

The last word, biological warfare agents, either natural or ma-made have put the lives on planet Earth in great danger and left the planet panic. The ongoing pandemic has paralyzed the whole globe and made countries helpless. Most developed nations have stuck in the situation badly. It has exposed the world badly and proved the world vulnerable to this front. World governing bodies and big powers must focus more on health sector and prepare the world against this imminent threat to protect the world instead of playing foul politics for their interests. Moreover, UNSC must establish a high level commission to probe the roots of COVID-19. The culprits should be taken to task if found biological weapon attack. There is a great need of more transparent, effective and binding international laws to the signatories parties to be made to curtail the dangers of the biological warfare agents and biowarfare. This is only solution to make the world peaceful for its inhabitants. Otherwise, global order and world itself would be destroyed.

                             THANK YOU!!!