Biological Weapons—a Primer for Microbiologists

Abstract

▪ Abstract Biological weapons are not new. Biological agents have been used as instruments of warfare and terror for thousands of years to produce fear and harm in humans, animals, and plants. Because they are invisible, silent, odorless, and tasteless, biological agents may be used as an ultimate weapon—easy to disperse and inexpensive to produce. Individuals in a laboratory or research environment can be protected against potentially hazardous biological agents by using engineering controls, good laboratory and microbiological techniques, personal protective equipment, decontamination procedures, and common sense. In the field or during a response to an incident, only personal protective measures, equipment, and decontamination procedures may be available. In either scenario, an immediate evaluation of the situation is foremost, applying risk management procedures to control the risks affecting health, safety, and the environment. The microbiologist and biological safety professional can provide a practical assessment of the biological weapons incident to responsible officials in order to help address microbiological and safety issues, minimize fear and concerns of those responding to the incident, and help manage individuals potentially exposed to a threat agent.

How Clean is Safe? Improving the Effectiveness of Decontamination of Structures and People Following Chemical and Biological Incidents

“…Space decontamination is building is primarily accomplished by fumigation with a number of different gases (Hawley and Eitzen, 2001). Formaldehyde is a widely used fumigant in controlled settings such as laboratories.…”

Safety and protective efficacy of INA-inactivated Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus: Implication in vaccine development

“…VEEV causes periodic outbreaks of disease in Latin and South America and is an emerging pathogen [1]. VEEV is highly infectious in aerosol form in mice and non human primates [2,3] and was characterized as a bioweapon [4]. VEEV has been designated a Category B priority pathogen by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.…”

Oligonucleotide array analysis of Toll-like receptors and associated signalling genes in Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus-infected mouse brain

“…VEEV is an emerging pathogen (Weaver et al, 2004), is highly infectious when delivered by aerosol (Steele et al, 1998) and has been developed for use as a bioweapon (Hawley & Eitzen, 2001). The virus may cause central nervous system (CNS) disease in horses and is transmitted to humans by mosquito.…”