Using Clostridium botulinum as a Biological Weapon Essay -- Terrorism

Fatal Dilemma Using Clostridium botulinum as a Biological WeaponEver since the dawn of biotechnology, the knowledge base had to face a new dilemma bioterrorism. Using biological agents such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc., bioterrorism attack aims to cause illness of death in people, animals, or plants as a method of warfare. Used throughout history, biological subdivision serves as a pivotal role in disarming an army. Botulism toxin, known for the well-nigh toxic substance in the biological world, has been used throughout history as a biological weapon. The bacteria Clostridium botulinum causes botulism causes botulism disease, which is a dangerous paralytic illness that strikes all age groups. The clinical forms of botulism include foodborne botulism, infant botulism, and wound botulism. Botulism, if left untreated, is fatal however, even treatment with antiserum can not permit full recovery. Botulism is rare a disease. Therefore, if anyone is diagnosed with foodborne botu lism, investigation of food supply must be carried out promptly for investigation of the botulism-diagnosed-individuals surrounding is the only method of detect a potential bioterrorism attack. With the continuous advancements in biomedicine follows a continuous proliferation of bioterrorism, which uses biological agents for malicious purposes (Anderson 2). More specifically, bioterrorism is a method of terrorism that measuredly releases or disseminates biological weapons that may be in natural occurring or human-modified form (Botulism- Definition). Although bioterrorism is considered as a recent dilemma, the use of biological weapon predates recorded history, during the ancient times where biological toxins were extracted from plants and animals and ap... ... Oct 2001. Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Department of Health and Human Services. 21 Jul 2007 . Fong, I.W., and Ken Alibek. Bioterrorism and infective Agents. New York Springer Science and Business Media, 2005.Hurlbert, R.E.. Biological Weapons Malignant Biology. 1997. 21 July 2007 hurlbert/micro101/pages/101biologicalweapons.html+no+tool+or+piece+of+knowledhe+has+an+innate+moral+context&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us .Knobler, Stacy L. , Adel A. F. Mahmoud, and Leslie A. Pray. Biological Threats and Terrorism. Washington DC Institute of Medicine, 2002.Shapiro, Daniel S and Alice S. Weissfeld. Botulism Toxin. Sentinel Laboratory Guidelines for Suspected Agents of Bioterrorism 21 July 2007 .