Introduction
“Terrorism means the use or threat of force or violence against people or property”. Bioterrorism means the use of biological substances for terrorist activities in order to bring harm to other people by causing illness or death; it is a combination of both terrorism and biological warfare. The biological agents which are used in the technology are typically found in nature, but their effects can be multiplied by increasing their ability to the product or disseminate disease, or to resist medical treatment. People have borne natural diseases ever since their existence and have also devised means to deal with many of them. Our bodies have a natural defense mechanism to protect us from illness and over time we have become immune to many diseases.
Modes of Spreading
Three elements are essential for a biological attack to take place: a susceptible target, a person or group with the capability to carry out the attack, and intent to implement such an attack.
Bioterrorism can employ a number of various agents as its weapon and the threat comes from the spread of diseases through the air or through contamination of drinking water or food, in few cases, the spread may also take place from person to person.
It is important for a lethal biological weapon to be severe and have a short incubation time in order to spread by air. It is also necessary that it be able to cause the disease by inhalation. It is also impractical to use a viral disease as a weapon, since it can only reproduce inside a body or a cell, besides it is also expensive, technically hard, and tiresome to produce it. On the other hand, it is easier to produce bacteria and therefore they are most dreaded but only specific bacteria have the ability to cause diseases after inhalation. Some of the most deadly diseases that have the potential to be used in bioterrorism include Anthrax and Plague. To spread disease through drinking water or food, it is vital to have an organism or a toxic compound that creates danger once it has been swallowed but the effects must be again severe and fast. An example of one such toxic substance is Boutolin.
1When people are exposed to bioterrorism, a normal life may come to a stop as there is great uncertainty about the origin of the attack, and the number of deaths is estimated to be high, thus, a community has to go through enormous shock. Thus, bio-weapons bring only threats for thousands of casualties but also additional disastrous long-term consequences.
Production and Dissemination of Bio-weapons
The bacteria of a disease can be obtained easily and grown in a fermentor- it is also easy to build and operate one. With some difficulty, techniques may also be devised to manipulate these bacteria so as to make them even more dangerous, the production phase can go without coming into notice but the actual difficulty lies in diffusing it over vulnerable and innocent people. It is possible to do so by spraying airplanes.
Producing biological weapons is an art as well as science as these are not readily adaptable to readymade recipes that may be implemented by anyone. But, the techniques and involved biological processes are now quite widespread and applications for terrorist purposes are less demanding.
These weapons may spread through criminal networks that can secretly transport the deadly agents across national borders. The diseases are virtually untraceable and can be easily brought into a country and then proliferated in large quantities. Bio-technology is going through rapid evolution and thus providing greater scope for use in bioterrorism. Existing evidence shows that terrorist organizations have a great amount of interest in using biological weapons. There are terrorist support cells in the different areas across the globe with the aim and motivation to carry out biological attacks. The main attraction factor in the use of biological weapons by terrorists lies in its greater devastating effect and easier use and transportation requirement than nuclear weapon.
Earlier, terrorism was aimed at making a political statement through violence and to influence an audience. The scope of its intended effects was calculated where it may draw attention but not that much which might activate an unnecessary tremendous response from authorities. But the modern terrorism aims at maximizing the casualties and making a political statement through such violence that maximizes damage to the intended target. Thus, a certain set of terrorists may aim at committing mass casualty through different means including biological terrorism.
International Laws Related to Bioterrorism
In a great number of countries, there are inadequate legal frameworks that place limitations on criminal justice systems which brings difficulty in detecting and suppressing bio-weapons. Laws are often not considered violated unless the disease or biological agent is set out in action. Consequently, law enforcement agencies are not able to start early investigations into the progress of such weapons. What is needed are laws that give criminal status to all activities related to bio-weapons, until this happens, there is no reason or basis for taking legal action or deploy steps to avert their production and transportation. By putting adequate laws related to bio-terrorism in place, law enforcement agencies can play a vital role with the aid of different local and international bodies.
Protection from Bioterrorism
The means of protection again bioterrorism is called Biodefense and it involves medical measures that protect people against biological agents. It includes medicines, vaccinations, medical research, and preparations that provide defense against bioterrorist attacks.
To provide protection against the threats of bioterrorism, means should be devised to enhance emergency medical readiness and support advanced pharmaceutical research for multivalent drugs, among others. This will facilitate in discouraging and defeating intentional or natural biological agents’ release, it will also improve general health and well-being of the people. At times of lurking threat, clinical awareness of the symptoms of the diseases resulting from bioterrorism among the general masses, the capacity of laboratory diagnostic in clinical and public health laboratory settings, the capability of quickly communicating critical information to those who need to know and managing public communication with the aid of media is important.
Since it is not really possible to control the intentions of attacking by potential attackers, therefore, the best strategy lies in creating means to prevent or alleviate the biological attacks.
Endnotes
National Institute of Health, “Biodefense and Bioterrorism”, (2008), Web.
Dr. T.M. Wassenaar “Special feature: Bioterrorism” (2005). Web.
David W.Siegrist “The Threat of Biological Attack: Why Concern Now?” (1999), 2008. Web.
INTERPOL, “The bioterrorism threat: strengthening law enforcement”, (2007), Web.
James M. Hughes “The Emerging Threat of Bioterrorism”, (1999), 2008. Web.