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Historical Advances in Bioweapons
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The intentionally developed toxins/pathogens of biological origin with an aim to harm the target hosts (normally humans), by disrupting their biological processes, are called Biohazard weapons or simply Bioweapons.
[Image: 200px-WMD-biological.svg.png]
Biohazard Alert Symbol

What encourages the use of bioweapons is:

a. Ease of producing the pathogenic microbes
b. Low cost of production
c. Stealth granted in terms of portability, which cannot be achieved in porting bulky explosives.
d. Transmission of weapon effect (a single target population can infect other healthy populations). Just imagine an epidemic/pandemic weapon!

Considering such advantages of biological weapons, the anti-social elements have worked pillar to post in extracting utility out of these nature-inspired tools of destruction, which has rather raised the alarms among nations to initiate/back-up defense response to such probable activities, through biotechnological research.
This article will take you through historical developments/advances in Bioweapons.

Plague-the most sought after and historical choice:
The reportedly first ever use of a biological weapons goes back to 14th Century War of Kaffa, when Mongolian Army dispersed heaps of plague infected cadavers into the city resulting a mass spread of the black death (which didn't spare the mongols either!). With the knowledge obtained about the disease's epidemiology, recognizing Yersinia pestis bacteria as the causative agent, the probability of it's use as a weapon peaked up, which was manifested in World War II, when Japan initiated multiple attacks of plague infected fleas on Chinese cities through air-crafts! A rather shocker came through the publication of Davis CJ's "Nuclear Blindness: an overview of the biological weapons programs of the former Soviet Union and Iraq" which mentioned Soviets' backed-up intercontinental ballistic missile warheads loaded with plague bacilli for launch before 1985! Such instances indeed put Plague on high-risk bioweapon list.

Small-pox: Another Obnoxious Weapon
1763's distribution of infected blankets and handkerchiefs by British army to Native Americans in Pontiac Rebellion, causing a lot of deaths, is reported as one of the earliest instances of use of small-pox as a bioweapon. Unlike plague, small pox is strictly human-specific weapon. The causative agent is Virus-Variola major or Variola minor the access to which is almost eradicated since 1970s. The only threat that remains is in the form of aerosols of the infected fluids that may spread the disease.

Anthrax in WWI
The report submitted by George W. Merck,biological-warfare adviser to President Roosevelt, in 1943 about the German Soldiers's action of inoculating horses and cattle with anthrax to cause the deadly disease in the indispensable animals of those times during WWI in France and Bucharest, raised the alarm among the nations about the seriousness of this weapon, which can easily be spread even in powder forms (instances of letters loaded with anthrax are also there). Adding gravity to the lethal effect, anthrax spores are highly persistent and may survive for decades even after chemical cleansing!
9 out of 10 victims die if spores enter the lungs and hardly 1 in 10 survive even after anti-biotic doses! But the disease is not transmitted from one infected person to other and the exposure has to be to the spores for the disease to effect. The causative agent is the spore forming Bacillus anthracis

The Biological Weapon Convention (BWC), 1972
The 1925 Geneva Protocol (came into being after reported uses of Bioweapons in WWI) asked for ban of use of any bioweapon (but not possession of it). Evidently, it wasn't abided by all, as in WWII Japan attacked China with Plague fleas! With an aim to strengthen the Geneva protocol, international community came-up with the BWC in 1972, for banning the production & possession of any kind of bioweapon held with an intention to harm the civil life.Though it came into force in 1975 with about 20 countries signing the treaty, and currently being over 180 countries a part it, there hardly exists any protocol to verify the authenticity of the signed claims of the members.
The threat of use and secret possession (as it came forward in case of the soviet union) always remains!

Bioweapon Defense
Considering the always hanging sword of Bioweapons, Nations are working round the clock for R&D of swift response to nullify the bioweapon attacks. A few of the defense actions are enlisted below:

1. Development of Prophylactic Vaccines
2. Therapeutic cocktails consisting of antibiotics, antiviral drugs, and antibodies for passive protection
3. Biodetectors/Biosensors/Indicators of suspicious activity/agents.
4. Strengthening innate immunity of the targets through injection of activators of innate immunity for short periods right after the attack.
5. Protective measures for food crops, which are at equal vulnerability of attack.

Recently, the extraction of small pox protein that causes the same pathogenic response as the virus itself has further raised the doubts over it's use in spreading the disease. The field of transgenics has elevated the concerns to next levels. Though the need for international surveillance of bioweapons' development was always felt, no strict action has been taken to realize the terms of the disarmament treaty of BWC. The concept of Bioweapons was taken to a next level when an "anonymous" country encouraged the emigration of HIV infected sex-workers to it's neighboring country. Such cases only highlight the gravity of problem being faced by world at large, which in immediate future might take even serious turns, unless some ethical norms are set in every Nation, apart from the much needed strict actions of the UN in enforcing BWC among the members and non-members.

Documentary by NatGeo on Bioweapons:
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