 | The protective clothing worn by a 17th-century plague physician. Etching by Paulus Furst of Nuremberg, Germany, 1656. Illustration from Bettmann/Corbis |
Bioterrorism has a long history. As early as 1346, attackers catapaulted human and animal cadavers over the walls of cities under siege, hoping to spread disease and terrorize inhabitants. These early practitioners of bioterrorism clearly grasped its fundamental principle. Spreading illness and death among enemy combatants and civilian populations would demoralize those it did not sicken or kill. Modern bioterrorism has its roots in WWI, with attempts by German espionage agents to infect animals shipped to Allied nations with glanders and anthrax. This experiment in bioterror was mostly unsuccessful. However, the Japanese army had better luck with its bioterror program in WWII—releasing plague-infected fleas over several Chinese cities, contaminating wells and food with pathogens, and infecting human subjects with lethal micro-organisms. During the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union developed sophisticated bioweapons programs, and sought to “weaponize” various pathogens. In 1969, Richard Nixon announced the end of the U.S. offensive biological weapons program, and ordered the destruction of stockpiled pathogens. In 1972, the United States joined 100 other nations in signing the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, which banned the research and use of biological weapons.  | In this historic photo, health care workers wear masks to protect themselves form respiratory illness. |
In 1979, nearly 70 people died of inhalation anthrax in Sverdlovsk, Russia when aerosolized anthrax was released from a defense facility. Defectors from Soviet Russia later confirmed the existence of a large Soviet biological weapons program, involving thousands of scientists. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, these scientists were free to peddle their dangerous knowledge elsewhere. Over the past fifteen years, nations (e.g. Iraq) and cults (e.g. Aum Shinrikyo) have used chemical weapons to kill, maim, and sow terror. They have had less success with biological weapons, though attempts have been made to kill and sicken people with Salmonella, botulinim toxin, and anthrax. These efforts were mostly unsuccessful until the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States. Five people died after being exposed to letters contaminated with anthrax spores. As a consequence of this successful (albeit small-scale) bioterror attack, hospitals throughout the United States have been asked to develop protocols to care for victims of possible bioterrorist attacks and to control or minimize the transmission of disease. |
