Bioterrorism: the lung under attack

• bioterrorism

Bioterrorism is a “hot topic”; a search of the literature and the internet reveals an explosion of publications, government strategies, and guidelines, as well as advice for the general public. Bioterrorism differs from “biowarfare” in the sense that the threat emanates from terrorist groups rather than nation states. Unlike conventional warfare, where the enemy, underlying circumstances and likely mode of warfare are known and understood, terrorism is less easy to predict—being sometimes aimed against seemingly random targets with little regard for the lives of civilian victims or that of the perpetrator. Chemical and biological weapons are very effective agents for terrorists whose strategy is not only to injure but also to instil terror and disorder into daily life, which may have long lasting psychological, economic, and political consequences. The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 and subsequent deliberate release of anthrax into the community in the USA in October 2001 has focused our attention on the threat of terrorism. Thus, at the recent Winter Meeting of the British Thoracic Society, the British Association for Lung Research organised a symposium which they called “Bioterrorism: The Lung Under Attack”. In addition, in this issue of Thorax O’Riordan and Smaldone address the need for preparedness by the respiratory community—particularly clinical and supporting services—to combat acts of terrorism.¹

Germ warfare is not new.^2,3 The Greeks and Romans polluted their enemy’s drinking water with animal corpses; the dead bodies of plague victims were catapulted by the Tartars into Kaffa in the 14th century; the British distributed blankets from smallpox victims amongst local American Indian populations during the 18th century destroying a high proportion of the population; during the first World War Germany attempted to obstruct food supplies by …