Biochemistry

Bioterrorism as a Threat to Humanity

Authors: Usman Sumo Friend Tambunan, Arli Aditya Parikesit, Linggih Saputro
Comments: 6 Pages.

Bioterrorism instrument of biological weapon of mass destruction. The simple definition of bioterrorism is the utilization of pathogenic micro-organism as an instrument of war and terror. Various notorious microbe has been applied as biological weapons, such as Bacillus antracis, Bubonic plague, Cholera, Botulinum, and others. As the weaponizing germs would eventually require sophisticated microbiology laboratory, not many nations can build it. History has shown that this kind of weapon is much easier to prepare than nuclear and chemical ones. Notorious dictators, such as Josef Stalin and Hideki Tojo, have issued policies to develop biological weapons. During World War II, Soviet Union has utilized them as an instrument to repel the invading German army, while the Japan Empire was about to utilized it in the Pacific War. According to the ordination of United Nations, the application of biological weapon during conventional war is strictly forbidden. Any nations that deploy bioterrorism as instrument of war will face certain sanction from United Nations. In one hand, by law, United States has suspended its biological weapon program at 1972. In the other hand, the dissolution of Soviet Union at 1991 has struck a fatal blow to the development of its biologicalweapon. However, although some random events in the world, such as the outbreak of avian influenza and Mers-Cov virus, are sometimes associated with bioterrorism by the conspiracy theorist, until today, the scientific community still found no evidence of biological weapon at the current outbreak. This lecture will discuss about the definition of bioterrorism, its utilization, and prevention (biosafety). It is expected that this lecture will eventually increase the public awareness toward the biological weapon.
Category: Biochemistry