Threat of Bioterrorism

The tragic events of September 11, 2001 redefined a new age of public safety and security, not only for the United States, but also for the entire world.

In the wake of the tragedy, the world was shocked to learn that another nontraditional, deadly asymmetric weapon was being deployed: lethal biological weapons. A week after 9/11, envelopes containing anthrax spores, were delivered by the U.S. Postal Service to five news media outlets, followed by an October 9^th delivery of anthrax-laden letters to two U.S. Senate offices.

By November 2001, 22 people in four states and the District of Columbia contracted anthrax, many of them through the tainting of letters via the postal sorting machines. In all, the bioterrorism attack claimed six lives.

The Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, led by an independent U.S. congressional committee, asserts that a large scale biological attack, expected to hit somewhere in the world by the end of 2013.

Along with the grave predictions in the December 2008 report, World at Risk, the Commission listed recommendations on how the government can reduce the risk of a biological attack. In January 2010, the commission issued a report card following up on those recommendations. For its efforts to “enhance the nation’s capabilities for rapid response to prevent biological attacks from inflicting mass casualties,” the government received an “F” letter grade.

Because bioweapons can be purchased or engineered at relatively low costs, can induce mass casualties and are oftentimes undetected by on-the-ground law enforcement, bioterrorism should be a chief concern in the international efforts to combat terrorists.

Bioterrorism can occur anywhere in the world, at any time. Lethal bioagents can be used as WMDs against military or civilians, via commercial shipping to a mass population or by aerosol in a public place, to name a few. The result could have catastrophic consequences, with an international pandemic and mass casualties.

Bioweapons prevention and training, along with rapid detection and on-site diagnosis, is the first chain in the link for an effective response to a bioterrorist threat.