What are they?
Bioterrorism agents are typically biological materials, such as
bacteria or
viruses, that are used in acts of warfare against a country or group of people. Sending anthrax
spores through the U.S. mail system in 2001 was the first such use of a bioterrorism agent against our country. Besides the U.S. mail, biological weapons may be carried in food products, drinking water, and animal herds.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) categorize biological agents according to the risk they pose to the public. Those that pose the highest risk, because they can be easily disseminated and could result in high mortality, are classified as Category A. These agents include bacteria and viruses that cause diseases such as:
anthrax,
botulism,
plague,
tularemia,
smallpox, and
viral hemorrhagic fever (such as hantavirus and ebola).
The CDC classifies the biological agents that pose a moderate risk to the public as Category B. These agents can be spread with some ease and can cause a moderate degree of illness, but death rates due to these diseases are usually low. [For more specific information on agents of bioterrorism and steps the U.S. government is taking to prepare in the event of another bioterrorist attack, visit the CDC’s bioterrorism web site.]
In addition to biological agents, chemical or radioactive agents may also be used as weapons of bioterrorism. The CDC classifies chemical agents according to their target activity on the skin, in the lungs, in the gastrointestinal tract, and in the nervous system. The only known use of chemical agents by a terrorist group occurred in 1994 and 1995, when the Aum Shinrikyo cult released the nerve gas sarin into the air in Matsumoto and Tokyo, Japan, resulting in 19 deaths and thousands of people requiring hospitalization or outpatient treatment.
Radioactive agents are colorless, odorless, and invisible to the eye. Contamination of food, water, or objects may disable or kill humans and animals and be difficult to trace. Symptoms of radiation exposure may include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and, depending on the extent of the exposure, bleeding gums, nosebleeds, bruising, and hair loss. Exposure to radioactive agents can be through ingestion, inhalation, or contamination of an open wound. An example of a radioactive agent is polonium 210 which, in 2006, was the cause of death of Russian dissident, Alexander Litvinenko.
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