THE ART OF WAR: BIOTERROTISM #2

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From the Part 1 of this topic we have identified that:

Bioterrorism involves the use of bioweapons, the use of biological agents and their associated toxins in warfare. Biological weapons have been implemented for years. The reason behind the implementation is the ability to cause disease and havoc, even death. Biological agents used in bioterrorism are bacteria, fungi, viruses and other microorganism. The toxins produced by these agents are used in warfare.
They are categorized into three as regards their ability to cause and spread diseases into the environment by the U.S. Centre for Diseases and Control (CDC). The ease dissemination of the agents with an appropriate method of delivery makes them to be preferred to other warfare agents. Infective doses of these organisms vary from one agent to another.

The Effect of Bioterrorism.

The possible negative effect of bioterrorism includes the following:

• The refusal of the affected population to accept treatment and preventive measures e.g. the quarantine and isolation of the individuals affected.
• The indiscriminate or inappropriate use of prophylaxis;
• Civil violence
• Economic losses
• Disruption of social life of the population involved.
• Mental damage may also arise as a result of stigmatization and ethnic stereotyping
• Public mistrust, panic, anxiety, depression and fear. The danger in this is that individuals who try to escape from this bioweapons are more likely to be infected.
• In so cases, death of some members of the population and loss of manpower.
  
  Skin reaction to anthrax.
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Ways of Combating Bioterrorism.

It is particularly difficult to combat the use of biological agents for bioterrorism because of the following:

• There are about thirty potential agents.
• The long incubation period of the agents involved
• The possibility of secondary infection and the further spread of the disease.

In other to combat these attacks and prevent a possible disease outbreak, (although it is extremely difficult) the medical personnel’s, the people and the government of the country in question all have roles to play. All effort to combat biological warfare has been intermeshed towards protecting soldiers on the battlefield rather than the people in cities although recently the United States has made contrary efforts.

For the Medical Personnel.

• They must understand the epidemiological situation and know the potential biological agents and the symptoms of the infectious diseases they cause.
• They must also be aware of treatment protocols and measures for preventing the spread of epidemics.
• Conduct timely research on the pathogens and identify new medications for treatment and emergency prophylaxic measures for individuals infected with by these agents.
• Must make effort to develop new immuno-enzyme and other test systems for detecting antigens and antibodies as markers for anthrax, hemorrhagic fever viruses, smallpox, tularemia, plague and other agents of bioterrorism.
• Fast diagnosis and detection of pathogens within a few minutes or within a few hours
• Strict adherence to safety rules and recommendation by CDC

For the people

• Although it is exceedingly difficult, it is advisable that individuals within the said population do not panic and avoid the spread of rumours.
• They are also advised to also adhere to instruction from the government of the day because efforts are always made to protect the interest of the people.
• Willingness to participate in clinical trials of new drugs

The government of the people

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• Public health education will play a major role in achieving the well being of the population and decreasing the incidence of many infectious agents.
• Effort should be made to control the reservoir of infection, for example in the cases of diseases that can be transferred from animals to man, the animals may be immunized or when already infected, the animals may be slaughtered and disposed off properly. This is particularly effective in the case of brucellosis but may be difficult in plague and tularaemia eradication where the animals are wild or in the cases where the pathogens are aerosolized.
• Promote the constant improvement of the health care and biomedical research infrastructure and hospitals must be amenable to continuously improving their methods for treating infectious diseases.
• Provide more research grants for programs that will assist in the development of devices that can detect and identify biological and chemical agents.
• The laboratories must be open to new technological methods in identifying, diagnosing, and inactivating or attenuating infectious agents,
• Establish modern, well-equipped PCR laboratories.
• Provide specialized and adequate training for medical personnel and laboratory workers.
• Limitation of the freedom f the individuals with active infection to prevent the spread of the disease to other members of the population, although it has been reported by CIDRAP (2001) that:

quarantine is not the best tool for halting bioterrorism, However the centre for disease control in 2013 reported that “quarantine and other public health practices are effective and valuable ways to control communicable disease outbreaks and public anxiety, but these strategies have always been much debated.

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The art of warfare in this century is real, starting from Mexican drug war in 2006, the Central African republic conflict in 2012, South Sudan civil war of 2011, Libyan civil war from 2014 to date etc. In all cases the use of biological weapons should be discouraged and I seriously advise that if all individuals prevent actions that could lead to war.

In cases where war is unavoidable and there is extremely unpredictable nature of involving biological weapons, then there is necessary obligation in developing rapid and accurate detection systems. In spite of the fact that; even though, some detection systems are under development and are at various stages of assessment, the possibility of getting a single detector for all the possible agents of bioterrorism might be difficult.

In conclusion, Please avoid war, it is not a joyful situation to seen people die as a result of biological warfare.
Thank for reading.

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