Bioterrorism is terrorism by intentional release or dissemination of biological agents (bacteria, viruses or toxins); these may be in a naturally-occurring or in a human-modified form.

Definition

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 1:

A bioterrorism attack is the deliberate release of viruses, bacteria, or other germs (agents) used to cause illness or death in people, animals, or plants. These agents are typically found in nature, but it is possible that they could be changed 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, through water, or in food. Terrorists may use biological agents because they can be extremely difficult to detect and do not cause illness for several hours to several days. Some bioterrorism agents, like the smallpox virus, can be spread from person to person and some, like anthrax, cannot.

History

Biological terrorism dates as far back as ancient Roman civilization, where dead and rotting animals were thrown into wells to poison water supplies (Bock, 2001.) This early version of biological terrorism was used to destroy enemy forces covertly. It continued on into the 14th century where the bubonic plague was used to infiltrate enemy cities, both by instilling the fear of infection in residences, in hopes that they would evacuate, and also to destroy defending forces that would not yield to the attack. The use of disease as a weapon in this stage of history exhibited a lack of control aggressors had over their own biological weapons. Primitive medical technology provided limited means of protection for the aggressor and a battle's surrounding geographical regions. After the battle was won, the inability to contain enemies who escaped death led to widespread epidemics affecting not only the enemy forces, but also surrounding regions' inhabitants. Due to the use of these biological weapons, and the apparent lack of medical advancement necessary to defend surrounding regions from them, widespread epidemics such as the bubonic plague quickly moved across all of Western Europe, destroying a large portion of its population. The victims of biological terrorism in fact became weapons themselves. This was noted in the Middle Ages, but medical advancements had not progressed far enough to prevent the consequences of a weapons use (Eitzen and Takafuji, 1997).

In the 15th century, smallpox was used on contaminated clothing to defeat South American and Native American forces (Bock, 2001). Again, the use of biological weapons, for which limited protection and containment was available, led to casualties on both sides of battles. Bioterrorism continued to be an effective method of weakening an adversary but it was also difficult to contain. In the Revolutionary War, colonists were vaccinated from the smallpox virus and then used the virus to intentionally infect enemies. This demonstrated a major advancement in the evolution of bioterrorism. Once the ability to defend from biological warfare became possible through medical advancement, the weapons became far more valuable.