Biological Weapons; a New Breed of Weapons for Modern Warfare

Biological warfare is the intentional use of microorganisms including bacteria, virus and toxins to produce disease and death in humans, livestock and crops, their attraction in war, and for use in terrorist attacks is attributed to various unique features. There is a long history associated with biological warfare. Thousands of years ago, before any understanding of pathogenic organisms, there was an initial observation that various biological materials could cause illness. Biological weapons (BWs) are defined as microorganisms that infect and grow in the target host producing a clinical disease that kills or incapacitates. Such microbes may be natural, wild- type strains or may be the result of genetically engineered organisms. These may also be the products of metabolism (usually of microbial origin) that kill the targeted host and include biological toxins. BWs can be disseminated by aerosol sprays, explosives or food and water contamination. Evaluation of information resulted in a list of three categories of pathogens. Category A pathogens, are high priority organisms and toxins posing the greatest threat to public health. Category B agents are fairly easy to disperse but have lower morbidity and mortality than the Category A agents. Category C agents are emerging infectious organisms which could become easily available in the future and used as a weapon. Successful implementation of a national biosecurity strategy will require integration of a variety of independent efforts across the federal, bioscience research, and public health communities. This review provides an overview of BWs, history of BWs, and their advanced agents. Moreover, health threats, biodefence and major challenges of prevention and detection are also discussed and future growth prospects and recommendations are also given for areas of future research.