Bioterrorism in the 21st Century

 

 

I am currently taking a Biology class on Evloution, and one of the questions asked was to research Biological Anthropology, and come up with an article, read it, and write about it, and how it pertains to Biological Anthropology.

In researching for an essay on Biological Anthropology, I came upon an article discussing Bioterrorism. I never would have thought that this would be a part of Biological Anthropology, but after reading this journal, I found that bioterrorism seems to definitely be a part of our human history.

When people talk about Bioterrorism, I do not think they think about cavemen, or people in history, they assume the present. People think of maybe the last 50 or 60 years. When you think of bioterrorism, we think, Anthrax, Small Pox, E Coli, And even salmonella.

In reading this journal, I have come to learn, that Bioterrorism has surely been a part of the human life, evolving strategically as the years go on.

The earliest event reported for the possible use of biological warfare dates back to 400 BC when Scythian archers would tip their arrows in a mixture of manure and blood from decomposing bodies. Enemy soldiers would develop bacterial infection from non-lethal arrow wounds. This technology is still used by some South American Indians and Africans to slay game and to down a human enemy or two.

How ingenious. These tactics were not developed in a lab. No chemicals mixed or created, just the use of our own human body fluids and excrements. What a scary thought, that anyone now a day could realistically do the same thing, and make a lot of people sick. All by using our own body fluids, and germs.

Bioterrorism has evolved in such way now, that people are creating biological weapons in the lab, trying to perfect the worst weapon of all, the biological weapon. A weapon in which if it is successfully created and launched, would cause many deaths before becoming contained. It is a scary world we live in.

With that said, I myself do not fear the terrorist creating Anthrax and sending it by mail, I fear the local farms that grow our vegetables and employ the many nameless men and woman who want to gain trust in America, only to turn around and infect millions. I always think about that when there is an outbreak of Salmonella or E Coli in our Lettuce fields, or vegetable fields. Those cases always seem to get handled, and seem to get traced back to a source that seems innocent enough as a hygienic issue.

But I always wonder, maybe the source of the outbreak is not so random, maybe terrorists are looking for a way to do things so it doesn’t stand out as a chemical biological weapon. We learn a lot from history, and sometimes, the way things were done in 400 BC, works just as well in the 21st century, but we just do not recognize it.

Reference: Click here

 

Referral Link:

 http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijba/vol1n2/bioterrorism.xml