NEG/TERRORISM/BIOLOGICAL
TURN: FOCUS ON BIOTERRORISM STOPS ACTION AGAINST EMERGING INFECTIONS, A GREATER THREAT
MORE FOCUS ON BIOTERRORISM TAKES AWAY FROM THE MUCH MORE IMPORTANT FOCUS ON EMERGING INFECTIONS
Dr. Raymond Zilinskas Senior Scientist-in-Residence for the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Project at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Oct. 20, 1999. Monterey Institute of International Studies CNS Reports ASSESSING THE THREAT OF BIOTERRORISM
http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/zilin.htm //VT2002acslnIn comparison to the real and enormous threat of emerging, reemerging, and transported infectious diseases, the problem of deliberately caused disease is almost insignificant. From a public policy perspective, it would make sense to pay much more attention to the larger problem while not neglecting the smaller one. However, that is not the situation at present in the U.S.; the overwhelming attention of executive agencies, the legislative branch, and the concerned public is affixed on the theoretical problem of bioterrorism and not on natural infectious diseases.
THE BIGGEST BIOLOGICAL THREAT FACING THE USA IS EMERGING INFECTIONS, NOT BIOTERRORISM
Dr. Raymond Zilinskas Senior Scientist-in-Residence for the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Project at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Oct. 20, 1999. Monterey Institute of International Studies CNS Reports ASSESSING THE THREAT OF BIOTERRORISM
http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/zilin.htm //VT2002acslnThe major biological threat facing U.S. society are infectious diseases of natural origin, in particular, emerging infectious diseases, reemerging infectious diseases, and transported infectious diseases (Lederberg et al., 1992). An example of the first was AIDS in the early 1980s and the Hantavirus outbreak in Four Corners in 1993. These types of diseases typically seem to appear out of nowhere and may cause tremendous damage and untold suffering among a susceptible population. Examples of the second type include the reemergence of cholera in South America after an absence in that continent since the early 1900s. There could be many reasons why diseases that have not been seen for a long time reemerge. In the case of cholera, a combination of factors probably was responsible, including an unusual El Niño condition and a breakdown in sanitary systems (Colwell, 1996). An outbreak of Marburg hemorrhagic virus disease outbreak in Germany earlier this year and the just concluded outbreak of West Nile fever in the New York area are examples of the third type. In these cases, the causative infectious agents are transported from an area where they are endemic to a new site where they have never been detected previously. As with emerging infectious diseases, transported infectious diseases are likely to come into contact with a population that is immunologically naïve, and therefore eminently susceptible.
FOCUS ON THE MORE IMPORTANT ISSUE OF NATURAL DISEASES WILL ALSO CONTRIBUTE TO EFFORTS AGAINST BIOTERRORISM
Dr. Raymond Zilinskas Senior Scientist-in-Residence for the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Project at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Oct. 20, 1999. Monterey Institute of International Studies CNS Reports ASSESSING THE THREAT OF BIOTERRORISM
http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/zilin.htm //VT2002acslnWhat is not so obvious and what I try to make clear in this paper is that there is need for placing the threat of bioterrorism in perspective — the greater biological threat facing the U.S. is not terrorists armed with biological weapons, it is, as it always has been, diseases of natural origin. If we can successfully meet and defeat the real threat of emerging, reemerging, and transported infectious diseases, then we have also gone a long way towards being able to handle whatever manifestation of bioterrorism that will occur.