Bioterrorism and its response strategies

Bioterrorism response
strategies
Submitted by-Himanshu sunhare
Submitted to – Mr Anurag shrivastav

Introduction
 Bioterrorism is terrorism involving the intentional release or dissemination
of biological agents. These agents are bacteria, viruses, insects, fungi or toxins,
and may be in a naturally occurring or a human-modified form, in much the
same way as in biological warfare

 Bio terrorism is used to threaten people, governments and countries
 Bioterrorism is the deliberate release of viruses, bacteria, toxins or other harmful
agents to cause illness or death in people, animals, or plants.
 These agents are typically found in nature, but could be mutated or altered to
increase their ability to cause disease, make them resistant to current medicines, or
to increase their ability to be spread into the environment.

 Biological agents can be spread through the air, water, or in food. Biological agents are attractive
to terrorists because they are extremely difficult to detect and do not cause illness for several hours
to several days
 The use of agents that do not cause harm to humans, but disrupt the economy, have also been
discussed.[8] One such pathogen is the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus, which is capable of
causing widespread economic damage and public concern (as witnessed in the 2001 and 2007 FMD
outbreaks in the UK), while having almost no capacity to infect humans.

History
 By the time World War I began, attempts to use anthrax were directed at animal
populations. This generally proved to be ineffective.
 Anthrax is a serious infectious disease caused by gram-positive, rod-shaped
bacteria known as Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax can be found naturally in soil and
commonly affects domestic and wild animals around the world.

Bioterrorism and its response strategies

Types of agents
Categary A
 can be easily disseminated or
transmitted from person to person;
 result in high mortality rates and
have the potential for major public
health impact
Agents/Diseases
 Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis)
 Botulism (Clostridium
botulinum toxin)
 Plague (Yersinia pestis)
 Smallpox (variola major)

Categary B
 are moderately easy to disseminate;
 result in moderate morbidity rates
and low mortality rates.
Agents/Diseases
 Brucellosis (Brucella species)
 Epsilon toxin of Clostridium
perfringens
 Glanders (Burkholderia mallei)
 Melioidosis (Burkholderia
pseudomallei)

Categary c
Third highest priority agents include
emerging pathogens that could be
engineered for mass dissemination in
the future because of
 availability;
 ease of production and
dissemination
Agents
 Emerging infectious diseases such
as Nipah virus and hantavirus

Bioterrorism Response Strategies
A lot of strategic planning take place at the national level. For example ,report by the
US congressional research service identifies strategis planning as one of the four
critical area of bioterrorism preparedness and that agency impletation will be key
component to translate strategic goals into effective programs of planning

Strategic planning include
 Preparedness planning and readiness assessment.
 Detection servillence and epidemiology capacity
 Laboratory capacity including diagnosisn & charecterisation of biological agents.
 Response & health alert network and information technology
 Communicating health Risk and health information dissemination
 Education and training

For communicable disease in particular,given the potential for initial expontial growth
in the number of cases from a single diseased individual . It is crucial that a variety of
methodologies both prophylactic an reactive , be developed for limiting spread.
These include:-
 Vaccination
 Treatment

 Quarintine
 Movement restriction
 Isolation

Bioterrorism and its response strategies

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