Search results
- According to Alibek, one particularly virulent strain, India 67 or India 1, was chosen by the Russians to be weaponised. They perfected techniques for mass producing smallpox and maintained a rolling annual stockpile of hundreds of tonnes. They also developed ways to disseminate the virus in aerial bombs and ballistic missile warheads.
www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/coldwar/pox_weapon_01.shtml
Apr 4, 2021 · How Commonly Was Smallpox Used as a Biological Weapon? Once introduced into the Americas, smallpox spread everywhere. Is it possible to know how often that was done intentionally to kill people?
Smallpox, the only disease ever eradicated, is one of the six pathogens considered a serious threat for biological terrorism (Henderson et al., 1999; Mahy, 2003; Whitley, 2003). Smallpox has several attributes that make it a potential threat. It can be grown in large amounts. It spreads via the respiratory route.
- J. Michael Lane, Lila Summer
- 2009
- 10.1007/978-1-4419-1266-4_5
- Overview
- Why is Smallpox a Concern?
- What Might a Bioterrorist Attack with Smallpox Look Like?
There is no immediate, direct threat of a bioterrorist attack using smallpox. No bioterrorist attack using smallpox has happened in modern times. Throughout history, though, some people have used smallpox to their advantage by deliberately infecting their enemies with the disease.
Public health authorities are concerned about smallpox because it is a serious—even deadly—disease. Today, there are only two labs in the world that are approved to have the smallpox virus for research: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States and the Russian State Centre for Research on Virology and Biotechnology in the Russian Federation. There is credible concern that in the past some countries made the virus into weapons, which may have fallen into the hands of terrorists or other people with criminal intentions.
The last natural outbreak of smallpox in the United States happened in 1949. The last naturally spread case in the entire world happened in 1977. The World Health Assembly declared smallpox eradicated in 1980. Even a single confirmed case of smallpox today would be considered an emergency.
Most likely, if smallpox is released into the United States as a bioterrorist attack, public health authorities will find out once the first person sick with the disease goes to a hospital for treatment of an unknown illness. Doctors will examine the person and use tools developed by CDC to figure out if the person’s signs and symptoms are similar to those of smallpox. If doctors suspect the person has smallpox, they will care for the person and isolate them in the hospital so that others do not come in contact with the smallpox virus. The medical staff at the hospital will contact local public health authorities to let them know they have a patient who might have smallpox.
Local public health authorities would then alert public health officials at the state and federal level, such as CDC, to help diagnose the disease. If experts confirm the illness is smallpox, then CDC, along with state and local public health authorities, will put into place their plans to respond to a bioterrorist attack with smallpox.
Page last reviewed: December 19, 2016
Content source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID), Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology (DHCPP)
As outlined in the historical review of biological warfare (1), smallpox is one of the most devastating diseases that could potentially be used as a biological weapon. In fact, smallpox was for many centuries devastating to mankind. However, the remarkable efforts of the World Health Organization led to its eradication in 1977.
- Stefan Riedel
- 10.1080/08998280.2005.11928026
- 2005
- 2005/01
Aug 6, 2024 · Special vaccines have been created, tested, and approved to deal with the two most lethal biological agents that can also be most easily weaponized: anthrax and smallpox. For example, the U.S. government has enough smallpox vaccine to vaccinate the entire American population and enough anthrax vaccine to inoculate at least every member of the U ...
Aug 8, 2023 · Smallpox is the first human infectious disease to be successfully eradicated worldwide. It remains of clinical concern because of the potential for release and weaponization. Smallpox is a member of the viral family poxvirus, genus orthopoxvirus, and species variola virus.
