AFF/BIOLOGICAL

ANTHRAX IS A DEADLY BIOLOGICAL WEAPON

ANTHRAX HAS BEEN WEAPONIZED AND IS DEADLY

This is a bacterium that infects mammals, including people. It occurs throughout the world, including the Middle East. The Americans and the British did anthrax research in the 1940s. The Russians had an accident with anthrax in 1979, when it escaped from a military laboratory in Sverdlovsk and killed people and animals. According to "Jane's Land-Based Air Defence 1997-98" book that is about to be published, the Russians have recently developed a strain of anthrax that is resistant to antibiotics. According to experts, if anthrax spores are inhaled, they cause a swift and grisly death. The unfortunate victim suffers a toxic shock sometimes within 24 hours of exposure.

200 POUNDS OF ANTHRAX SPORES CAN KILL 1-3 MILLION PEOPLE

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, School of Public Health, Univ. of Minnesota, 2000; LIVING TERRORS: What America needs to know to survive the coming bioterrorist catastrophe //VT2002acs p. 67-8

Remember that the Office of Technology Assessment estimated that just a couple of hundred pounds of anthrax spores released on a clear, calm night upwind of Washington, D.C., could kill I to 3 million people. This scenario is precisely the kind of case study that policy makers and public health officials are now beginning to give careful consideration.

INHALATIONAL ANTHRAX IS A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, School of Public Health, Univ. of Minnesota, 2000; LIVING TERRORS: What America needs to know to survive the coming bioterrorist catastrophe //VT2002acs p. 1 9

Breathing the bacteria into your lungs, however, causes a different form of the disease: inhalational anthrax. This is the most deadly form, and the most likely one that a terrorist would try to exploit. If you breathed the spores into your lungs, you would probably be ill within two to ten days -but your body could hold off showing signs of illness for the next six to seven weeks. When it does hit you, it's swift and ruthless. As the bacteria grow in the lymph nodes of your chest, early symptoms mimic many common flulike illnesses. By the time you've got a full-blown case and get a proper diagnosis, antibiotics and intensive medical care are unlikely to help. If you're like most patients, you'll be dead within twenty-four to seventy-two hours from overwhelming infection and shock caused by toxins that the bacterium produce.