Biological weapons are able to deliver toxins and microorganisms such as viruses and bacteria with the specific aim of inflicting disease and death among people, animals and agriculture. The severity of a biological attack can vary from the destruction of crops to causing outbreaks of illnesses within a community to causing mass destruction worldwide and bringing death.

Biological weapons can also be used in many different forms and in many different ways and can depend on several factors such as the agent and its preparation, the agent’s durability in the environment and the route of infection. Some agents used can be dispersed as an aerosol, which can infect a cut or can be inhaled while other attacks can be made by contaminating water or food.

How biological weapons where used in the past

Biological weapons however aren’t a new thing they have been in existence for thousands of years, in 1396 when the tartar army were invading, the army began catapulting the bodies of those the plague had killed into the peninsula city of Kaffa and citizens where quickly infected.

In 1763 British troops gave the Delaware Indians blankets that were infected with smallpox which infected the susceptible Indian population.

Japan released plague infected ticks during their conflict with China and more recently in 2001 anthrax powder in letters were sent to people in the United States and 22 people were infected and 5 died.

What’s the difference between biological weapons and nuclear and chemical weapons?

There are a number of differences which set apart biological weapons and other weapons of mass destruction such as chemical or nuclear, firstly the release of an agent in biological warfare is not immediately known or detectable. We do have ways of detecting biological agents but there is almost always a delay between acquiring the agent and identifying it.

The effects of the attack is not always detectable immediately although people may be exposed to the agent immediately after its release there is usually a period of incubation and more often than not the outbreak of disease will be the first indication that there has been an attack.

If the attackers used a transmissible agent such as the smallpox or Ebola virus then this will infect people at the site of release and these people will inadvertently spread it through traveling. Secondary infections then will arise at many places far from the initial site of release.

To protect us from the threat of biological weapons two treaties have been put in place, the Geneva protocol in 1925 prohibits the use of biological weapons in warfare and the 1972 biological and toxins weapons convention restricts countries from developing , producing, stock piling or acquiring biological weapons, agents and equipment.