Biowarfare

            
             This paper is especially relevant today due to the fact that it may be one of the main reasons that our country is currently engaged in a war with Iraq. One of the deciding factors in declaring war was the fact that the United States believes Iraq was in possession of biological weapons and was hiding it from UN inspectors. This poses a major threat for our country because we are a major target of terrorism as we all learned unfortunately on September 11th, 2001. In fact it can be argued that there is no longer a question of whether or not a bioterrorist will attack, but rather the question remains, when will they attack. Biological warfare intentionally uses viruses, bacteria, fungi, or toxins from living organisms to bring death on humans, animals or plants. Biological pathogens released intentionally or accidentally, or naturally occurring, can result in disease or death. Human exposure to these agents may occur through inhalation, skin (cutaneous) exposure, or ingestion of contaminated food or water. Following exposure, physical symptoms may be delayed and sometimes confused with naturally occurring illnesses, so infected people might not know they are infected. Biological warfare agents may persist in the environment and cause problems some time after their release. These factors mean that the epidemic could spread before we even know it has started. Biological agents fall into 4 major groups. The first three are classes of micro-organisms ; bacteria, rickettsia, and viruses. The fourth group consists of bacterial toxins which are the poisonous chemicals produced by bacteria. The most famous of these biological weapons is anthrax. Anthrax was all over the news following September 11th. There were a number of cases reported in the months after the World Trade Center attack. The most publicized being the letter sent to NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw. Anthrax is an acute infectious disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis.