Bioterrorism And Its Classification

Bioterrorism and its classification

Introduction

The use of the disease as a weapon has been a resource widely used by man, so it is threat is older than it seems and its development has been even with the evolution of knowledge and technology available. Therefore, bioterrorism, a term that originated in the United States, is a current term, but it is not new.

The non -existence of a universally agreed definition of this phenomenon, has led to both specialists and several international actors to prepare their own definitions, which has generated a huge amount of bioterrorism definition proposals. In addition, the legal definition of this phenomenon must be precise, clear and uniform in the international community, if you want to fight effectively before it. However, a definition as a whole has not been achieved.

Developing

They define bioterrorism as “the criminal employment of pathogenic microorganisms, toxins or harmful substances against the population with the purpose of generating disease, death, panic and terror. It is also used to name the introduction in a country of biological material with phytopathogenic agents, quarantine diseases, chemical inputs or any other type of material that threatens people’s lives and health ”.

Another author, Hernández (2007) understands bioterrorism “illegitimate use, or the threat of use, microorganisms or toxins obtained from living organisms, to cause disease or death in humans, animals or plants, in order to intimidate governments or societies to achieve ideological, religious or political objectives ”.

On the other hand, the centers for disease control and prevention (CDC) define bioterrorism as "the intentional release of viruses, bacteria or other germs that can infect or kill people, cattle or crops". Another conceptual approach would be "the planned and deliberate use of pathogenic strains of microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses or their toxins to propagate potentially mortal diseases on a large scale in order to devastate the population of an area".

Consequently, the purpose of bioterrorism is to infuse fear in a society, destabilizing its authority, economy and self – esteem. Attacks of this type produce disease and death, destroy the psychological and emotional balance of the population and predisposes individuals to submission for fear. Thus, the ideal biological weapon would be that capable of spreading quickly and easily in a large population, it was highly contagious, it would cause high rates of morbidity and mortality, to require great resources to combat it, thereby causing great social panic.

Classification of biological agents

The types of classifications on biological agents and toxins are very diverse. First, biological agents likely to be used in arms are classified into five categories: bacteria, viruses, rickettsiae, fungi and toxins. On the other hand, biological agents can be classified into three categories based on their impact on the population:

•  Category A: Easy dissemination agents or person to person are transmitted, causing high mortality and whose impact on public health is high.
•  Category B: Agents with moderate capacity for their dissemination and induction of mortal frames specifying special methods for diagnosis. They are agents susceptible to dissemination via water or food.
•  Category C: Agents that can be modified or created by genetic engineering.

Also, they can be classified according to their action: against people, against animals, against vegetables or against material. Or, for its properties: transmissible disabling, lethal, non -transmissible disabling or non -transmissible lethal transmissible. Another possible classification would be according to its characteristics: virulence, incubation period, contagiosity, medium stability (survival capacity) or size.

conclusion

At present there are several ways to refer to the use of biological knowledge as a weapon: the biological or bioguerra war should be considered in the context of a military offensive and mass attack on enemy troops, using means for this purpose in which they are Regular armies involved, and bioterrorism that instead cannot be detected until it occurs, where its facilities and operators cannot be differentiated from common citizens in common houses, with common routines. 

Likewise, biological attacks can be placed between two categories: minimum attacks and mass attacks. One or the other will be called the type of agent used, the way to use it and the vulnerability of the threatened population.