smallpox

The term "biological weapons" tends to conjure up mental images associated with sterile government labs, special uniforms, and test tubes full of bright liquids. Historically, however, biological weapons have taken much more mundane forms: paper bags full of plague-infected fleas, or even a blanket, as happened during the 1763 French and Indian War.

Smallpox is caused by the variola virus. In the most common forms of disease, death occurs in 30 percent of cases. The symptoms of smallpox are heat, body aches, and a rash that develops from fluid-filled sores. The disease is predominantly spread through direct contact with the skin of an infected person or through bodily fluids, but can also be spread through the air in tight, confined environments.

Smallpox is classified as a Class A bioweapon due to its high mortality rate and also because it can be airborne. While a smallpox vaccine exists, generally only medical workers and military personnel are vaccinated, which means that the rest of the population is at potential risk if this type of biological weapon is used in practice. How can a virus be released? Probably in aerosol form, or even the old-fashioned way: by sending an infected person directly to the target area.

Due to its high mortality and resistance to environmental change, anthrax bacteria are also classified as a class A bioweapon category. The bacterium lives in soil, and animals that graze on it often come into contact with the spores of the bacterium while searching for food. A person can become infected with anthrax by touching the spore, inhaling it, or swallowing it.

In most cases, anthrax is transmitted through skin contact with spores. The most deadly form of anthrax infection is the inhaled form, in which the spores enter the lungs and are then transported by immune system cells to the lymph nodes. There, the spores begin to multiply and release toxins, which lead to the development of problems such as fever, breathing problems, fatigue, muscle pain, swollen lymph nodes, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. Among those infected with the inhalation form of anthrax, there is the highest mortality rate, and, unfortunately, all five victims of the 2001 letters fell ill with this form.

The disease is extremely difficult to catch under normal conditions, and it is not transmitted from person to person. However, healthcare workers, veterinarians, and military personnel are routinely vaccinated. Along with the lack of widespread vaccination, "longevity" is another feature of anthrax. Many harmful biological bacteria can only survive under certain conditions and for a period of time. short period time. However, anthrax can sit on a shelf for 40 years and still be a deadly threat.

Today, anthrax remains one of the best-known and most dangerous biological weapons. Numerous bioweapons programs have worked over the years to produce and improve anthrax, and as long as there is a vaccine, mass vaccination will only be viable if there is a mass attack.

Russian University of Chemical Technology

abstract
“ Bacteriological weapons and protection against them. anthrax ”

Completed: student of platoon A-31
Khaliullin Rustam Zakarievich

Moscow, 1998

Types and basic properties of combat biological means.

The basis of the damaging effect of biological weapons is biological agents (BS) - biological agents specially selected for combat use that can cause mass severe diseases (damages) in people, animals, plants. Biological agents include: individual representatives of pathogenic, i.e. pathogenic microorganisms - causative agents of the most dangerous infectious diseases in humans, farm animals and plants; waste products of some microbes, in particular from the class of bacteria, which have extremely high toxicity in relation to the human body and animals and cause severe damage (poisoning) when they enter the body.

In order to destroy crops of cereals and industrial crops and thereby undermine the economic potential of the enemy, one can expect the deliberate use of insects - the most dangerous pests of agricultural crops - as biological means.

Pathogenic microorganisms that cause infectious diseases in humans and animals, depending on the size of the structure and biological properties, are divided into the following classes: bacteria, viruses, rickettsiae, fungi, spirochetes and protozoa. The last two classes of microorganisms as biological means of destruction, according to foreign experts, do not matter.

Fungi are unicellular or multicellular microorganisms plant origin. Their sizes are from 3 to 50 microns and more. Fungi can form spores that are highly resistant to freezing, drying, action sun rays and disinfectants. Diseases caused by pathogenic fungi are called mycoses. Among them are such severe infectious diseases of people as coccidioidomycosis, blaotomycosis, histoplasmosis, etc.

anthrax

A person can become infected with anthrax when caring for sick animals, contact with objects and agricultural products, skin, wool, infected with spores, eating infected meat. You can also become infected by inhaling dust containing spores of the pathogen. In the summer, you can get sick from the bite of horseflies and flies.

Anthrax, depending on the route of penetration of the pathogen into the human body, can be skin, pulmonary and intestinal forms. For the development of the skin form, 10 microbes are enough, and for the pulmonary form, 20 thousand spores are required to be inhaled (D. Rothschild).

Patients with anthrax, especially pulmonary and intestinal forms, are dangerous to others and are isolated. The disease begins 2-3 days after infection, sometimes after several hours, 8 days or later. Such fluctuations in the timing of the onset of the disease depend on the state of the body, the route of infection of a person and the number of microbes that have entered his body.

The cutaneous form of anthrax begins with the appearance of a red, itchy spot at the site of the introduction of microbes, it soon turns into a dense nodule. After a few hours, a bubble forms at the top of the nodule, gradually filling with bloody fluid. The bubble bursts, and in its place a black crust appears - an area of ​​dead skin. Around this place, new bubbles arise, which go through the same development cycle. This is how an anthrax carbuncle is formed. The skin around the carbuncle becomes inflamed and red, there is a lot of swelling. A characteristic feature of the anthrax carbuncle is mild pain compared to the usual furuncle.

Simultaneously with the development of anthrax carbuncle, the temperature rises. In some patients, on the second day of illness, it reaches 40-41°C. The general condition of the body is severe. The patient has malaise, weakness, headaches, insomnia, and a dreary mood. With a favorable outcome after the sixth day of illness, the temperature drops to normal, the edema disappears, the carbuncle gradually resolves, the crusts fall off, the ulcer scars.

Anthrax carbuncle most often develops on open areas of the skin: on the hands, face, head Anthrax of the skin form without treatment ends in death in 5-15% of cases.

Pulmonary form of anthrax. Anthrax pneumonia develops when microbes enter the respiratory tract. Previously, this form of anthrax was called woolworm disease. They became infected by inhaling the dust when breaking the wool contaminated with spores. This is a very severe form of the disease and proceeds with signs of severe poisoning by microbial poisons. It begins with chills and a rapid rise in temperature to 40 ° and above. At the same time, chest tightness, coughing, stabbing pains in the side, runny nose, lacrimation appear; voice becomes hoarse. Cough is accompanied by the release of liquid bloody sputum. Without treatment, the disease often ends in the death of the patient.

Intestinal anthrax occurs when infected through the mouth. This form of the disease is characterized by severe inflammation. intestinal tract more often small intestines, ulcers are formed. The disease develops acutely: there are severe cutting pains in the abdomen, vomiting of bile mixed with blood, bloating, frequent bloody loose stools.

In the pulmonary and intestinal form, the body temperature is high and the disease often ends in death on the 3-5th day.

To prevent the disease in our country, a live anthrax STI vaccine developed by Soviet scientists is used. Vaccination is given to people and animals in areas where there are outbreaks of this disease. The vaccine provides good protection against this infection.

Anthrax patients are treated with penicillin or biomycin. Early treatment gives good results. AT severe cases the patient simultaneously with antibiotics is administered anthrax therapeutic serum.

Literature:

1. A. M. Arkhangelsky “Bacteriological weapon and protection against it”, Moscow, 1971

2. Yu. V. Borovsky, R. F. Galiev “Bacteriological weapon of a potential adversary and protection from it”, Moscow, 1990

Anthrax - what is it?

This is a rather acute infectious disease that is transmitted to humans from a sick animal (cattle, camels, horses, pigs), from its wool, from its skin. It is characterized by manifestations of black color, as well as sores on the skin. Anthrax is registered in all countries of the world without exception. The causative agent of the infection is anthrax bacillus. This is one of the largest dangerous microbes.

Disease period

Basically, anthrax in humans occurs as a skin infection. In rare cases, the bacillus enters the body through the respiratory or digestive system, affecting both the lungs and intestines. Usually the incubation period lasts up to three days, but sometimes the time frame varies (from a couple of hours to a couple of weeks). The cutaneous form of the disease appears on those parts of the body that are often not covered by clothing. Vulnerabilities- wounds, cuts, abrasions, scratches. Two or three days after the penetration of the bacillus into the human body, small spots of a reddish hue appear on his skin. They itch a lot, turning into papules - vesicles filled with pus, which, after maturation, burst and leave behind dead black tissue. Anthrax, the symptoms of which appear after the first day, is characterized by lethargy, weakness of the body, body temperature up to 40 degrees, and rapid heartbeat. The temperature lasts for about a week, after which in some cases it drops sharply. Black dots, which appeared on the skin at the very beginning of the disease, in the case of proper treatment, begin to heal after two to three weeks. In this case, the scab (dead skin) is torn off. In its place are sores, which gradually heal.

Anthrax - the bioweapon of our time

In the last century, this disease caused a real boom among the military: they saw it as a biological weapon. The fact is that if anthrax infects the respiratory system, it will cause the death of a sick person in 99%. Scientists laboratory changed the microbe at the gene level, making it more resistant to various kinds of antibiotics. Modified, it has become even more dangerous and deadly. It turned out to be a real biological weapon. If it gets to the terrorists, it will take an uncountable number of lives among the civilian population. Fortunately, this has not happened yet, since modified anthrax is protected on a par with nuclear weapons!

Letter for you!

We all know cases when terrorists who were able to get hold of anthrax spores sent out envelopes with an infection. Infected mail was sent to various government agencies in the United States of America. Fortunately, the terrorists did not have all the information about the properties and characteristics of these microbes, as well as the methods of using them as biological weapons, so their attempts failed.

Prevention and quarantine

Primary responsibility in preventive measures rests on the shoulders of veterinarians who regularly examine animals. With the precision of a jeweler, they must recognize even the smallest signs of a sick animal. In addition, people whose profession requires contact with potential carriers of the infection are required to be vaccinated against anthrax.

Plague, smallpox, anthrax are deadly biological agents that, working alone, may not kill you. Harmful properties that they possess is a by-product of their evolution.

But what might happen when scientists start tinkering with the genetic makeup of these organisms? Unfortunately, the creation of such life forms is not just pages from a science fiction novel - it is already happening.

In Greek and Roman mythology, a chimera is an organism that combines the body parts of a lion, a goat and a snake in one body. In modern genetic science, a chimeric organism is a life form that contains genes from a foreign species.

Despite the deeds of their unpleasant namesake from mythology, in modern genetic science, such organisms can be useful. One such chimera combines the common cold virus with polio and could help treat brain cancer.

Unfortunately, abuses in this area of ​​science are also inevitable. Geneticists have already discovered a means to increase the lethality of biological weapons such as smallpox and anthrax by tweaking their genetic makeup.

By combining genes, scientists could theoretically create a virus that causes two diseases at once. In the late 1980s, the Chimera Project in the Soviet Union explored the possibility of combining smallpox and Ebola to create a single supervirus.

Other possible scenarios nightmare include strains of viruses that require specific triggers. For example, stealth viruses can remain dormant for long periods of time until they are called into action by given stimuli.

Viruses can adapt and mutate over time. Sometimes, due to close contact between humans and animals, new strains arise. human population continues to increase, so the emergence of new diseases and their epidemics is inevitable.

Information about the Nipah virus reached health institutions in 1999 during another outbreak. Then in the Nipah region, Malaysia, 265 people were infected and 105 died.

Scientists suspect that frugivores could be carriers of the virus the bats. Precise nature The transmission of the virus is uncertain, but experts believe the virus can be spread through close physical contact or through contaminated bodily fluids.

The illness usually lasts 6 to 10 days, causing symptoms that range from flu-like symptoms to fever and muscle aches and encephalitis.

In more severe cases, patients experienced drowsiness, disorientation, seizures, and finally fell into a coma. The Nipah virus, along with a number of other emerging pathogens, is classified as a bioweapon category "C".

Although no country is known to have explored its capabilities as a weapon.

During the invasion of Europe in the 13th century, Genghis Khan, without knowing it, brought a terrible biological weapon. The gray steppe cattle that were used to move the carts brought the deadly rinderpest.

Rinderpest is caused by a virus closely related to measles and affects cattle and other ruminants such as goats, bison and giraffes.

The disease is highly contagious, causing fever, loss of appetite, dysentery and inflammation of the mucous membranes. The condition drags on for six to 10 days, when the animal usually dies of dehydration.

While Genghis Khan came into possession of such biological weapons by accident, many modern countries are not so innocent.

Canada and the United States are conducting tests on the use of viruses as biological weapons to undermine the animal husbandry of enemy countries in the event of war.

4. Rice blast

Big number bacteria, viruses and toxins pose a significant threat to humans, but many biological agents prefer another prey: crops.

Cutting off enemy food supplies is a time-honored military strategy whether you're defending your homeland from invading enemy forces or laying siege to a walled city. Without food, the population weakens, panics, riots and famine begin.

A number of countries, especially the United States and Russia, have devoted much research to plant diseases and even insects that devour key food crops.

The fact that modern Agriculture usually focused on large-scale production of a single crop, only gratifies the activities of the architects of decadence and famine.

One such biological weapon is a disease caused by the fungus Pyricularia ogugae (also known as Magnaporthe grisea). Thousands of grayish fungal spores develop on the leaves of affected plants.

These spores multiply rapidly and spread from plant to plant, destroying plants and resulting in reduced yields.

While breeding resistant plants is sometimes a good defense against certain crop diseases, blast is a problem because the fungus that causes the disease has several hundred strains.

Take a deep breath. If you inhaled botulinum toxin with the air, then you have no chance to determine this: it is colorless and odorless.

But after 12-36 hours, the first signs of botulism will begin to appear: blurred vision, vomiting and difficulty swallowing. And then your only hope for survival will be a serum against botulinum toxin.

If left untreated, muscle paralysis sets in, which eventually affects respiratory system and the person dies within 24-72 hours.

For this reason, the deadly toxin of bacteria is classified as a category "A" biological weapon. Since the toxin affects the nerve endings, it will take the patient several months to recover.

Spores of the bacterium that causes the symptoms of botulism are distributed throughout the world and are found in soils and marine sediments. The spores are often found in fruits, vegetables, and seafood. In this state, they are harmless.

But as soon as they begin to grow, the production of deadly toxins begins. Humans are primarily exposed to the toxin as a result of tainted food, as temperature and chemical substances products that are stored improperly often provide ideal conditions for the growth and development of spores.

Despite the fact that the mortality rate for tularemia is only five percent, this bacterium is one of the most contagious on Earth.

In 1941, 10,000 cases of the disease were recorded in the Soviet Union. The following year, during the German siege of Stalingrad, this number rose to 100,000 cases. Most of them occurred among the Germans.

Former Soviet bioweapons researcher Ken Alibek argues that this spike in infection was no accident.

The bacterium Francisella tularensis occurs naturally in no more than 50 organisms and is especially common in rodents, rabbits and hares.

Humans usually contract the disease through contact with infected animals, bites from infected insects, consumption of contaminated food, or inhalation of the bacteria in aerosol form.

Symptoms usually appear within 3 to 5 days, depending on the route of infection. Patients may experience fever, chills, headache, diarrhea, muscle pain, joint pain, dry cough and progressive weakness.

If left untreated, respiratory failure can develop, followed by shock and death. The illness usually lasts no more than two weeks, but during this time infected people are mostly bedridden.

Tularemia is not transmitted from person to person and can be easily treated with antibiotics or prevented with a vaccine. However, it spreads rapidly if the pathogen is aerosolized. Therefore, in the rating of biological weapons, tularemia is classified as “F”.

The Black Death wiped out a quarter of Europe's population in the 14th century. Echoes of this horror continue to terrorize the world even today.

True, some researchers today believe that this world's first pandemic may actually have been caused by hemorrhagic fever, but the term "plague" continues to cling to another longtime suspect: the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis.

It is classified as a biological weapon "A". Plague exists in two main forms: bubonic and pneumonic. Bubonic plague is usually spread through the bites of infected fleas, but can also be spread from person to person through contact with infected body fluids.

This species is named for the clinical presentation of swollen glands, or buboes, around the groin, armpits, and neck. The swelling is accompanied by fever, chills, headache and fatigue. Symptoms appear within two or three days and usually last one to six days.

Pneumonic plague is less common and is spread through the air by coughing, sneezing, and face-to-face. Its symptoms include high fever, cough, bloody mucus, and difficulty breathing.

In 1940, a plague broke out in China following a Japanese attack that threw bags of infected fleas out of airplanes.

These days, biological terrorists would probably prefer to aerosolize the plague. Several countries have been researching the use of plague as a bioweapon, as the pathogen is still found in nature and is easy to find.

With appropriate treatment, the plague's mortality rate can be below 5 percent. There is no vaccine.

The other known killer is the Ebola virus, one of more than a dozen different types of viral hemorrhagic fevers that are associated with profuse bleeding and high mortality.

The name "Ebola" began to make headlines in the late 1970s, after the virus killed entire villages in Zaire and Sudan. Since discovery, at least seven outbreaks have occurred in hospitals and laboratories in Africa, Europe and the United States.

The Ebola virus was named after the Congo region where it was first discovered. Infection with the virus occurs through direct contact with the blood or other secretions of a sick person.

Symptoms in an infected person may begin to appear in 2 to 21 days. Typical signs may include headache, muscle pain, sore throat and weakness, diarrhea and vomiting.

Some patients also suffer from profuse internal and external bleeding. After 7-16 days, 60 to 90% of affected people die.

Doctors still don't know why some patients are better able to recover and recover than others.

They never learned how to cure the disease. As noted earlier, there is no vaccine for Ebola. Scientists have developed a vaccine for only one form of hemorrhagic fever, yellow fever.

By the way, cases of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever with a slightly lower mortality were recorded in Ukraine.

While many medical professionals are working to better treat and prevent Ebola outbreaks, a group of Soviet scientists have tried to weaponize the virus. They initially had difficulty growing the Ebola virus in laboratories, having more success with Marburg hemorrhagic fever.

However, by the early 1990s, they had solved the problem and were able to spread the virus through the air in a laboratory setting.

The ability to spread the virus in the form of an aerosol and the high lethality of hemorrhagic fevers classify them as Category A biological weapons.

Anthrax bacteria are classified as Category A biological weapons due to their high mortality rate and ability to persist in the external environment for a long time.

The bacteria live in the soil, where animals usually graze, which can come into contact with the spores while eating host plants. Humans, however, can also become infected with anthrax if they touch, inhale, or swallow the spores. In most cases, anthrax manifests itself in the skin form.

The most dangerous form of anthrax is inhalational, when the spores enter the lungs and are carried by the immune system to the lymph nodes. Here, the spores multiply and release toxins that cause severe disease.

Inhalational anthrax has the highest mortality rate, 100 percent without treatment and 75 percent with treatment.

The disease is not transmitted from person to person, but medical workers, veterinarians, and military personnel are routinely vaccinated.

Anthrax bacteria have extreme survivability and can persist in the external environment for about 40 years, representing a deadly threat. These properties have helped make anthrax a favorite among biological weapons programs around the world.

Japanese scientists performed monstrous experiments on humans with anthrax spores in the late 1930s at their infamous Unit 731 facility in occupied Manchuria.

British troops experimented with anthrax in 1942, contaminating the Greenard Island test site so thoroughly that 44 years later it took 280 tons of formaldehyde to clean it up.

In 1979, anthrax spores were accidentally released from a secret laboratory in Sverdlovsk. As a result of infection, 66 people died.

The term "biological weapons" tends to conjure up mental images of sterile government labs, hazmat suits, and test tubes full of the brightly colored liquids of the apocalypse.

Historically, however, biological weapons often take on much more mundane forms: wandering poor exiles, paper bags of plague fleas, or, as during the French and Indian War of 1763, simple blankets.

By order of the commander of the British troops, blankets infected with smallpox were distributed to the Indian population of the Canadian province of Ottawa.

Native Americans were particularly susceptible to the disease because, unlike the European invaders, they were not immune to the virus. The disease struck the Indian tribes like wildfire.

True, the honor of creating the first safe smallpox vaccine also belongs to the British doctor Edward Jenner.

Smallpox is caused by the variola virus. In the most common form of the disease, the mortality rate is 30 percent.

The symptoms of smallpox are: high fever, body aches, and a rash that later develops into fluid-filled blisters and scabs.

The disease is predominantly spread through direct contact with the skin or bodily fluids of an infected person, but can also be transmitted by airborne droplets in close quarters.

In 1967 World Organization The Public Health Service (WHO) led the effort to eradicate smallpox through mass vaccination. As a result, in 1977 it was recorded last case natural smallpox infection.

The disease has been virtually eradicated from nature, but laboratory copies of the smallpox virus still exist. Both Russia and the United States have WHO-approved materials, but no other countries are known to have worked with the smallpox virus to create bioweapons.

The smallpox virus is classified as a category "A" bioweapon due to its high mortality rate and the fact that it can be transmitted through the air.

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EPIDEMIOLOGY

Soil is the main reservoir of the anthrax pathogen. B.anthracis spores can persist in it for years, remaining viable and pathogenic properties. During this time, they represent a potential source of infection for cattle, but at the same time, they do not pose an immediate risk of developing the disease for humans, even in regions with high soil contamination with this pathogen. This, in particular, is associated with the formation of large aggregates of spores larger than 6 μm with soil components that are unable to penetrate into the terminal sections. respiratory tract, as well as with a high minimum infectious dose of 8000-10000 spores. Spores enter the body mainly of herbivores, where they turn into vegetative forms that can cause disease.

The source of infection is most often domestic animals - cattle, sheep, goats, camels, pigs. A person can become infected when caring for infected animals, slaughtering livestock, processing meat, and through contact with contaminated animal products (hides, skins, furs, wool, bristles). The infection is predominantly professional in nature. Spores penetrate the skin through microtraumas and abrasions, which leads to the development of the skin form of the disease. With the alimentary route of entry of the pathogen, for example, when eating raw or insufficiently thermally processed meat of infected animals, an oropharyngeal or intestinal (gastrointestinal) form of anthrax occurs.

From an animal to a person, the infection can also be transmitted by aerogenic means, in particular, by inhalation of infected dust, bone meal, which is currently extremely rare. In these cases, an inhalation form of anthrax occurs. According to the UK Health Laboratory Service, the possibility of person-to-person transmission through direct contact with lesions in a patient with cutaneous anthrax cannot be ruled out. At the same time, it is emphasized that cases of transmission of infection from person to person by aerogenic route have not yet been registered.

AS A BIO-WEAPON AGENT

The use of anthrax spores as a biological weapon is due to the relative ease of obtaining a large amount of biological material, the possibility of its covert use, and high efficiency. The most likely use of anthrax in the form of bacteriological weapons- spraying an aerosol containing viable spores of the pathogen. In this regard, patients with a pulmonary form of the disease, accompanied by high mortality, will prevail among the affected.

According to official data, Great Britain, Japan, Iraq, Russia and the United States possess the causative agent of anthrax as an agent of bacteriological weapons. However, according to experts, today at least 17 countries either already have ready-made biological weapons or are completing developments in this area.

WHO experts calculated that 3 days after the application of 50 kg of pathogen spores over a two-kilometer zone in the direction of the wind towards a city with a population of 500,000 people, 125,000 (25%) of them 95,000 (76%) deaths will be affected.

Infection of people with anthrax, associated with the inhalation route of entry of the pathogen into the body, is also described as the result of emergency situations in special laboratories involved in the development of biological weapons.

With the help of genetic engineering, it is possible to insert genes encoding the synthesis of toxins in B. anthracis into the genome of other microorganisms of the genus Bacillus, such as B. cereus. At the same time, effective vaccines that can protect against infection have not yet been developed. Moreover, it is possible to select B.anthracis strains that are resistant to various antimicrobial agents.