Bioweapons Flashcards
What are the four things that show the potential of warfare or terror?
- Public health impact
- Delivery potential
- Public perception
- Public health preparedness
What does public health impact mean?
How effectively can hospitals/clinics deal with numerous casulaties
What does delivery potential mean?
How easily can the agent be introduced
Mass production/ availability/ enviromental stability
What does public perception mean?
Effect of public fear
What does public health preparedness mean?
Existing response measures
Diagnosis, recognition, well planned responce, vaccines
Do all microorganisms have the potential of a bioweapon?
No
What are the five factors of weaponisation?
- More casulaties
- How easily it can be introduced to pop
- The effect of public fear on ability of response personnel to contain a disease outbreak
- Attempts to identify areas where improvements are needed in health care infastructure to prepare for attack
- When assessing an agent, given a score against each criteria
What does it mean to have more casulaties?
More difficult to effectively respond to all patients
Highly lethal - proper disosal of bodies would become difficult which would help disease spread
What does it mean to be easily introduced to pop?
The more people that can be infected at once
The longer it remains infctive, the greater the the threat
What does the effect of public fear on ability of response personnel to contain a disease outbreak mean?
Agents with high morality, few treatment options, vaccine will instill greater fear making control mechs like quaranitine difficult to enforce
What does attempts to identify areas where improvements are needed in health care infastructure to prepare for attacks mean?
Diagnosis and recognition
Proper servalence and training
well planned response if attack is confirmed
What are some known microbial threats?
Human - smallpox, anthrax, plague
Animal - foot and mouth virus
Plants - anything effecting crops
What are some specific example of microbial threats?
Anthrax
Bird flu
What is Anthrax?
Toxins of plasmid
possible to engineer enhanced pathogenicity or resistsnce to antibiotics
Initial symptoms resemble common cold, progresses to breathing difficulties, often fatal
No human to human transmission
What is bird flu?
60% of people infected were killed
Not easily transmitted to humans
