Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
2 The History and Threat of
Biological Weapons and Bioterrorism
ZYGMUNT F. DEMBEK
history, and has also been recorded as used in
battles in many ancient cultures. Arrows were
common weapons in ancient civilizations, and
toxic arrows were used. Among the arrow poisons
used by ancient cultures were snake toxins, scor-
pion venom, and various plant toxins, including
hellebore from the buttercup
Helleborus orien-
talis
, aconitine from
Aconitum napellus
, and scopo-
lamine from
Hyoscyamus niger
(henbane). The
potential for a current-day threat from these toxins
should not be dismissed. During the World War II,
Russian scientists isolated aconitine to create
poison bullets, which were used as assassination
weapons [1].
2.1 Introduction
Modern societies well-understand the potential for
catastrophic consequences through use of weapons
of mass destruction. Nations have all too often
suborned expertise in the biochemical, molecular,
and epidemiological sciences to create biological
weapons. It cannot be assumed that past cultures
did not create and use similar weapons simply
through an empirical understanding of their effects.
Recognition of the effect of infectious diseases on
populations resulted in the use of infected individ-
uals, toxins, human waste, cadavers, and animal
carcasses as weapons against armies. Whether by
driving infected livestock into an opponent's camp
over 3000 years ago, catapulting plague-infested
bodies over castle walls during the Middle Ages, or
sending anthrax-filled envelopes in the mail during
the twenty-first century, the intent of these efforts
throughout time has been the same: to cause illness
and death among one's enemies. It is encour-
aging to think that the current age will be one in
which biological weapons will no longer be used.
However, the study of their use throughout history
dictates otherwise, and serves as a warning of our
need for coordinated preparations against the next
purposeful biological event.
2.3 Battlefield Use of Infectious
Diseases, or “Giving The Gift That Keeps
On Giving”
Many ancient commanders had a basic under-
standing of disease transmission from animal-to-
man (zoonoses) and from person-to-person. During
the twelfth to fifteenth century BC, the Hittites
are known to have driven animals infected with
disease and a syphilitic woman into enemy terri-
tory with the intent of plague initiation. Since
armies were composed of men separated from
their loved ones, the allure of “toxic women”
may not have easily been overcome. The King
of India presented a deadly gift to Alexander the
Great in the form of a “poison maiden”: a “beau-
tiful maiden whom had fed on poison until she
had the nature of a venomous snake” [2]. Thirty
centuries later, Spanish forces were “intentionally
2.2 Biological Weapons in the Ancient
World
Cuneiform tablets from 1770 B.C. Sumeria claim
details of lethal pathogens. The use of biolog-
ical toxins extracted from plants and animals
on arrowheads or poison darts predates recorded
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