In a crowded store during the Christmas shopping rush, a man sneezes and does not cover his face. Early one morning, a sniffling woman wipes her nose with her fingers and then wipes it off on the subway pole she’s holding onto for support. A sweating, glassy eyed toddler is fussed over by its mother and several other travelers just outside the security gates at a large airport.

America is under attack by bioterrorists.

All of these scenarios and dozens more are evaluated every day by the men and women of numerous police departments, Homeland Security offices and the Public Health services nationwide. They all realize one important truth. We will not know we have been attacked until it is well underway.

Illnesses have two time frames to consider. The first is the incubation period. That is the time that passes before the patient becomes sick. The second item is the period of time that the patient is infectious.

A bioterrorist seeking to use human hosts to initiate the attack must use a disease that incubates long enough that the terrorist host can reach the target. The disease selected must also be infectious long enough to allow the terrorist to spread the illness before succumbing to it. An ideal disease has a long incubation period and is infectious before the host becomes ill.

Many of today’s terrorists are inspired by some religion, and draw their ideal vision of an attack from the sacred writing of that religion. An attack must appear like it was a plague from God, Allah or whichever deity the terrorist follows.

Along with that, the disease must terrify. The common cold would not be the terrorist’s choice. Everyone has had it. Everyone is annoyed by it but no one fear it. A bioterrorist weapon must terrify.

The media’s imagination has been captured by smallpox and by Ebola. Smallpox is deadly to some of its victims, but its appearance is what terrifies. Oozing pustules all over the body mark smallpox and the survivors are often horribly scarred for life.

Ebola is also terrifying. In the poverty stricken areas of the world where it appears naturally, the vast majority of its victims die. And, they die horribly, bleeding from every orifice including the eyes. That is an image to terrify the most hardened soul.

Terrorists learned a great deal from the anthrax letters. It became clear that a small threat could result in a great deal of panic. Government officials, the media and the public reacted in just the manner that a terrorist wants, fear, some panic, the spending of vast sums of money, disruption of media and government offices and operations for weeks and months. The lesson was that a small attack can achieve great things.

Most terrorists are not content with the small attack. A bioterrorist attack will attempt to spread a terrifying disease throughout our population in enough cases that the results of the anthrax letters will be multiplied a hundred times.

The easiest way for a bioterrorist to spread an infectious disease is through using living hosts. Since many terrorist organizations are devoted to suicide, that is not much of a hurdle. The hosts must be infected and in the United States before their disease begins to show.

The disease selected ought to be easily spread, and the symptoms of the common cold or the flu are an ideal way. Snot kills. Smallpox spreads via contact with the virus which can exist on surfaces for days. Ebola is spread by contact with the bodily fluids and is very fragile outside the human body.

Terrorists would concentrate on targets that have meaning to them, or to the United States. The Pentagon has both buses and a train station where its employees arrive daily. Public transportation is an ideal means of bringing thousands of people into contact with a disease at the same time.

A disease could also be spread by using non-human hosts. Rats could spread plague in New York City, as they have throughout history. Mosquitoes carrying a disease could be released into a shopping mall.

Spreading a disease without using a host is a difficult task. A dispersal method must be developed that is effective and not obviously a threat. A means of carrying the infectious disease must also be found that does not threaten the person carrying it and does not kill the disease en route. The technology exists but it is a far more daunting task for the potential bioterrorist. The method of transportation might fail. The means of dispersal might fail. The mechanisms involved might be detected by American security forces before they can be used.

The most likely scenario for a bioterrorist attack on the United States involves one or more infected terrorists doing their level best to be disgustingly unsanitary in a public area of their target. They may appear ill or they may not. They will be coughing, vomiting, sneezing and wiping snot on anything and anyone they can.

Tomorrow we will look at bio toxins.

World At Risk, The Report of the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism was issued on December 2, 2008. One of its conclusions was that the threat from bioterrorism was greater than that posed by either nuclear or chemical weapons of mass destruction.

The Commission believes that unless the world community acts decisively and with great urgency, it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013.

The Commission further believes that terrorists are more likely to be able to obtain and use a biological weapon than a nuclear weapon. The Commission believes that the U.S. government needs to move more aggressively to limit the proliferation of biological weapons and reduce the prospect of a bioterror attack.

In a five part series this week, America’s North Shore Journal will be examining the threat of bioterrorism to the United States and the preparations which have been made against that threat.

Bioterrorism is the use of infectious diseases or biologic toxins in a terrorist attack. Terrorism is defined by US law:

Section 2656f(d) of Title 22 of the United States Code defines certain key terms used in Section 2656f(a) as follows:

1. the term “international terrorism” means terrorism involving citizens or the territory of more than one country;
2. the term “terrorism” means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents; and
3. the term “terrorist group” means any group practicing, or which has significant subgroups which practice, international terrorism.

The United States has experienced bioterrorism in the past. The example that most people will be familiar with is the anthrax letters of 2007. Less well-known are the tens of thousands of hoaxes based upon fears of anthrax or the thousands of false alarms created by people finding dust or powders of various sorts in unexpected places. It is very clear to the law enforcement community as well as terrorist groups that it is not necessary to actually conduct an attack to create the publicity, fear and economic disruption of a bioterrorism attack.

The United States has both vulnerabilities as well as strengths when it comes to bioterrorism. Our freedom of movement and the way our society operates its transportation systems mean that an infectious disease or toxin can rapidly move from one part of the nation to another with little impedance. The traditional “Protestant work ethic” also is a factor with Americans commonly coming to work sick. We go places even though we are ill, and that spreads disease.

Our main strength is the quality of our healthcare system, from emergency medical services all the way to the highest quality medical facilities in the world. We have the ability to fight a bioterrorist attack from the street corner on up the healthcare chain.

We also have a medical research and pharmaceutical industry that is unmatched on the planet. Our best and brightest minds are available to research and counter any biological attack.

Over the next few days, we will look at the threats from infectious diseases, biological toxins, the potential sources of biological agents and the measures that have been or need to be taken to counter bioterrorism. There will be a little history and a little speculation, as well.

Bioterrorism Research Resources:

• The Report of the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• World Health Organization
• Interpol

The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency destroyed the last landmine in its stockpiles containing VX nerve-agent munitions, Dec. 24, at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Anniston, Ala.

“We have reached a truly remarkable milestone following more than five years of deliberate, but careful, operations,” Timothy K. Garrett, ANCDF site project manager, said. “All nerve-agent munitions — those containing GB and those containing VX — have been safely processed.”

CMA personnel and contractors have destroyed the VX munitions at six disposal sites: Anniston, Ala.; Umatilla, Ore.; Newport, Ind.; Pine Bluff, Ark.; Tooele, Utah; and Johnston Island, about 800 miles southwest of Hawaii.

“I commend Anniston and all CMA destruction sites on this extraordinary achievement. By destroying the VX agent at each of CMA’s destruction sites, you have made the world a much safer place,” Conrad Whyne, CMA director, said.

CMA continues to safely and securely store the remaining VX in the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile at the Blue Grass Chemical Activity near Richmond, Ky., officials said. Construction is under way on a neutralization facility there, and the U.S. Army Element Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives is charged with the agent’s destruction.

Destruction of chemical weapons already is complete at Newport, Aberdeen and Johnston Island, officials said. Operations continue at Tooele, Umatilla, Anniston and Pine Bluff, CMA’s remaining destruction sites. These sites are destroying or preparing to destroy blister agent and the only remaining nerve agent for CMA’s destruction mission — GA at Tooele, officials said.

VX is the least volatile, but most potent, of all chemical warfare agents, officials said. The agent attacks the nervous system, causing muscles to convulse uncontrollably. Exposure can result in loss of consciousness, convulsions, paralysis and respiratory failure.

The nerve agent first was developed in the early 1950s. The nation’s original stockpile of about 4,400 tons was produced at Newport Chemical Depot between 1961 and 1969. Newport’s production facility was destroyed in 2006.

The nerve agent never was used in combat by the United States.

“The elimination of this deadly chemical agent from each site’s stockpile is a relief to the stockpile communities, and a sign of our commitment to other nations as we move one step closer to a safer world,” Whyne said.

DVIDS

DVIDS
By Spc. Ryan A. Cleary
196th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

Soldiers from the 637th Chemical Company gathered Jan. 12 to display and demonstrate their newest weapon in the fight against terrorism-the Joint Biological Point Detection System.

The JBPDS represents the most advanced biological threat detection and identification system in the world, and officially marks its inception into the National Guard.

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WMD, chlorine gas, used in an attack by terrorists in Ramadi.

Central Command

AR RAMADI, Iraq – Emergency Response Unit personnel, Iraqi Police, and civilians northwest of Ramadi were attacked by a suicide vehicle-born improvised explosive device (SVBIED) early Sunday [Jan 28, 2007]. Coalition forces responded to the attack to provide immediate medical assistance and evacuate the wounded to medical facilities.

Along with the suicide bomber, 16 people were killed by the attack.

The SVBIED was a dump truck filled with explosives and included a chlorine tank. The truck crashed into the Emergency Response Unit compound and detonated. There are no indications of any casualties caused by the release of chlorine gas.

The Al Jazeera Police and U.S. Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 37th Infantry Brigade responded to the scene and worked together to evacuate the casualties. The majority of the casualties were evacuated to the U.S. medical facility at Camp Ramadi. Some victims of the attack were evacuated to Coalition medical facilities in Balad and Baghdad.

Emergency Response Units serve as a quick reaction force to augment and support the police in Anbar province. They are made up of Iraqi citizens and are led by the commander of the Iraqi Police in Anbar.