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Bioterrorism Part 2: How do they pick them? - Page 2

© Neal Rolfe Chamberlain

Some microbes can be easy to produce, readily available, and are serious human pathogens but they are not very stable. In the case of the recent bioterrorist-sent mail, the microbe had to survive several days' shipping. If the microbe dies in the mail it is useless to the bioterrorist. Bacillus anthracis is a bacterium that can survive for long periods of time in the soil (years). It exists in two different forms: a vegetative cell and a spore. The vegetative cells are very easily killed; however, the spore form of this organism can last for long periods of time in the environment. Smallpox virus will only last about two days in the air or on a surface. It is not as good an agent to use.

Lastly, the infectivity of a human pathogen is also very important. If it takes millions and millions of microbes to cause an infection it is not very useful in bioterrorism. Salmonella typhi can cause a serious blood infection; however a person has to ingest a million of the organisms to get sick from it. It also does not last very long in the environment. However, organisms like smallpox, Bacillus anthracis (anthrax), and Francisella tularensis (tularemia) can infect people when present in very low numbers.

By the time all these criteria are met very few organisms are useful for bioterrorism. Next week I will go over the various categories of biological warfare agents identified and the agents in those categories.

If you can't wait for next weeks article and want some information now here are a few places to get some good background and information: Biological Warfare/Bioterrorism Handbook
CDC's Public Emergency Health and Preparedness website
An Emerging Infectious Disease journal article titled "Nuclear Blindness: An Overview of the Biological Weapons"
Programs of the Former Soviet Union and Iraq"

Take Care and Think Microbiologically! For more microbiology articles go to Suite101:Microbiology.

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