Bioterrorism: Definition, History, Present State, Organization and Coordination of Counter-Terrorism

Bioterrorism might be an arranged and conscious utilization of pathogenic strains of microorganisms like microscopic organisms, infections, or their poisons to spread hazardous maladies on a mass scale in order to crush the number of inhabitants in an area. People have described subsequent hundred years because the “century of biology.” Incredibly rapid and profound changes in genetic modifications in bio-molecular engineering and enhanced bio-production technologies, however, may make it easier for terrorists to beat the barriers that inhibited acquisition of biological weapons within the past. Historically, biological weapons are a threat to humans for several centuries. At those times, very crude methods like faecal matter , animal carcasses, etc. were wont to contaminate water sources, but now the concentrated sorts of biological agents like dried spores and genetically modified organisms are available, which are fatal even in minute quantity. The threat of BW has been engaging the eye of Indian defense and doctors for an extended time. There are a couple of episodes that have raised suspicion within the past. During the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965, a tsutsugamushi disease outbreak in north-eastern India came under suspicion. India's defense and intelligence outfits were aware of the outbreak of plague – documented in BW – in Surat and plague in Beed in 1994, which caused several deaths and sizeable economic loss. In 2001, the anthrax scare reached Mantralaya and, whilst India tries to stop terrorist attacks like the one in Mumbai in November 2008, security experts say that despite not facing a biological warfare thus far , the country must not ignore that threat.

Author(s): Krassimir Metodiev

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