Biological weapons countermeasures

Reliable information on the epidemiology, disease severity, and effect on public health is essential to sustain the need for a vaccine. The authorities must develop the policy to prevent infectious diseases and in the same time countermeasures against effects of biological weapons attack. 

We need to have drugs, antidotes, and cures for the weapons of mass destruction that terrorists are likely to use. To develop medicinal countermeasures, the basic science involved must first be understood. For both chemical and biological weapons, the process of molecular recognition by elements of the human body is of utmost importance. However, we do not have a clear understanding of protein surface interactions, the relationship of genes to protein function, and how viruses infect and replicate. All of these processes are chemical in nature and caimot be solved without knowledge of the chemical sciences. 

Referring to the increasing threat of novel bioagents, Steven Block, former president of the Biophysical Society, was quite pessimistic The biological weapons threat is multiplying and will do so regardless of the countermeasures we try to take. You can t stop it, any more than you can stop the progress of mankind. You just have to hope that your collective brainpower can muster more resources than your adversaries [308]. ... 

This chapter focuses primarily on the development of chemical and biological weapons and countermeasures to them, thus setting the stage for Chapter 3, Historical Aspects of Medical Defense Against Chemical Warfare, which concentrates on medical aspects of chemical warfare. To avoid excessive duplication of material, protective equipment of the modern era is illustrated in Chapter 16, Chemical Defense Equipment.—Eds.]... 

Information available in this chapter will provide a brief overview of the history of biological and chemical weapons and their use for terrorism, briefly discuss the technical aspects characteristic of currently recognized biological and chemical threat agents, and relate the importance of ongoing and needed multidisciplinary research programs to address countermeasures to biological and chemical threats to both military and civilian elements of Western society, economic viability, and political stability. 

When we consider the multitudes of vulnerabilities to potential terrorists use of biological and chemical weapons as discussed above, and the rapid expansion of novel production and delivery methodologies increasingly available to terrorists as a result of technology proliferation, it becomes apparent that effective prevention and protection strategies must be multidisciplinary and integrated at the local through national levels, and the research efforts to develop and field effective countermeasures must be interdisciplinary. 

Although the threat of toxin weapons of the future is formidable, the prospect of new and better medical countermeasures is brighter than ever before. Biotechnology may have more value to those of us who are developing countermeasures than to those who would use toxins maliciously. Molecular biological techniques that have been developed in the last few years now allow us to produce more-effective and less-expensive vaccines against the protein and peptide toxins. Such vaccines will likely... 

Different methods of delivery of nanotechnology-enabled CB weapons wiU likely require different countermeasures. Delivery via aerosol, food, water, or skin will potentially elicit different physiological and biological reactions and wiU require different treatments. For example, prions and other proteins may be able to attach to nanoenabled aerosol particles that have the capability to cross the blood-brain barrier. Research to understand delivery mechanisms for prions, levels of infectious doses, and overall time dependence is needed. 

Although the benefits of such advances are clear for medicine and public health, it is important to consider that these same advances could also be designed to cause intentional harm. The same nanoenabled system that facilitates dehvery of a vaccine, for example, can be used to deliver a biological agent. For this reason, researchers should consider the use of such technology in weapons and research countermeasures as necessary. 

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