Bio-warfare
The diseases that might become weapons

All in the mind?
Anthrax 'more effective as a scare tactic'
 
Webs of deception
Cipro sites targeted for illegal sales

On the brighter side, a leading medical research institute, the Mayo Clinic, announced that it developed a test for anthrax that works in less than one hour. The test can be used both on people and in the environment. In development is a test that can be given even before symptoms occur for the deadly inhalation anthrax. It will be a bomb that the consumer can use that will cause tiny anthrax spores to be revealed in a clinical test.

A vaccine exists, and there are steps being taken to produce the vaccine. However, the supply of vaccine will remain low, and probably never will exceed what may be needed for inoculations for emergency personnel.

Biological Weapons - SMALLPOX - PLAGUE - ANTHRAX - and a host of other diseases... they've got it and they've got the missles to launch it too.

Experts say the immunity for smallpox has probably worn off for most. The vaccine only protects for about ten years. There are only a few million potent doses of the vaccine left. A build up to a supply of 300 million doses, is needed "just in case" say the experts. At least 30% of smallpox victims would be expected to die without having the potent vaccine to ward off the infection.

Plague is or pneumonic plague may be spread too. If inhaled it may be especially deadly.

Biological weapons are easier to make than nuclear weapons and deadlier than chemical ones. The worst-case scenarios involve the dissemination of genetically engineered ''super bugs'' that are lethal, contagious and untreatable.

The experts point out that the first signs of attack would be the arrival of sick people at an emergency room. Anyone who had come into contact with the sick over the incubation period of the virus could unwittingly pass on the contagion.

The influenza epidemic of 1918-19 killed 20 million people, far more than died during World War I.

Germ Expert Says Panicky People Can Iron Mail

October 17, 2001

Ken Alibek, a top former Soviet germ warfare scientist who is now a U.S.-based author and researcher trying to develop defenses against bio-terror, told a surprised congressional briefing on nonproliferation that a hot, moist steam iron and moist fabric could kill anthrax spores.