Biological Warfare and it's Types

What is Biological Warfare?

Biological warfare is the use of various biological agents like bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi to kill or harm some humans. A biological attack can result in a large number of causalities and can disrupt the economy and infrastructure of the enemy country.

Biological Warfare

A famous example of biological warfare is the use of bioagents in world war 1 that causes anthrax and glanders infection.

To reduce the proliferation of biological warfare agents, the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) was signed in 1972. This international treaty prohibits the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling, and use of biological weapons. Its aim is to ensure the peaceful use of biological sciences and prevent the misuse of biological agents for harmful purposes.

Categories of Biological agent

The CDC of the united states divided various biological agents that are used in biological warfare into the following categories:

1. Category A

These weapons can have devastating consequences, leading to significant loss of life and posing major risks to public health. The use of biological warfare agents can result in high mortality rates and cause widespread harm to populations. 

Therefore, it is crucial to prevent their development, production, and use to safeguard public safety and minimize the potential for such catastrophic impacts. They can be easily transmitted from person to person. They may cause public panic and require special attention. Eg: Anthrax, Plague, Smallpox, etc.

2. Category B

These weapons can cause moderate levels of illness and relatively low rates of mortality. While they may not have as high a mortality rate as some other weapons, they can still result in significant morbidity, causing illness and health complications among affected populations. They are moderately easy to spread from one person to another. Examples: Q fever, ricin toxin. cholera, etc.

3. Category C

They can be easily spread from one person to another. They have high morbidity and mortality. Examples are the Nipah virus, Hantavirus, etc.

Popular Posts

Conducting Polymers: Definition, Examples, Properties and Applications

Image
What are Conducting Polymers? As the name suggests organic polymers that conduct electricity are known as conducting polymers. They are also known as intrinsically conducting polymers (ICPs) and they have alternating single and double bonds along the polymer backbone (conjugated bonds) or that are composed of aromatic rings such as Phenylene, naphthalene, anthracene, pyrrole, and thiophene which are connected through carbon-carbon single bonds. Examples: Polyacetylene, Polypyrrole, Polyaniline, etc What is the reason behind conducting nature of these polymers? Conducting polymers comes in two forms that are doped conducting polymers and non-doped conducting polymers. The conductivity of non-doped conjugated polymers is due to the existence of a conductivity band similar to a metal. In a conjugated polymer, three of the four valence electrons form strong sigma bonds through sp² hybridization where electrons are strongly localized. The remaining unpaired electron of each carbon atom re
Read more

Crime Scene: Definition, Types and Characteristics

Image
What is a Crime Scene ? A place where the crime is committed or where the maximum physical evidence related to crime is found is known as a crime scene. A crime scene is a starting point of the investigation which provides information about the suspect and the victim. This helps to reconstruct the crime and fast resolution of the case. It is noted that the crime scene is not limited to a single place but may extend to a wider area depending upon the nature of the crime committed. For example, In a murder case where murder is done at one place and the body is disposed on another place. In this case, we have two crime scenes that give information about the crime. Types of Crime Scene Based on evidence found on the crime scene: 1. Primary Crime Scene The crime scene where the actual crime occurred or where more usable pieces of evidence were found is known as the primary crime scene. For example, A murder scene, theft, assault, etc. 2. Secondary Crime Scene The crime scene which is some
Read more

Documentation of the Crime Scene: Step by Step

Image
What is documentation of the crime scene and Why it is done? After securing the crime scene, the next most important step is documentation of the crime scene because documentation permanently records the crime scene and its physical evidence. Documentation should be done without any wastage of time as the scene and its evidence may get altered over time. The documentation should be done innovatively and the originality of the crime scene should be maintained and documentation should not have pauses or breaks, it should remain constant till the whole crime scene is documented. There are four main tasks of documentation that is note-making, photography, videography , and sketching . It should be noted that all four tasks are necessary and none is a substitute for another. For example, notes are not substitutes for photography, video is not a substitute for sketching, etc. Following are the sequence for crime scene documentation: 1. Note making Documentation of crime scene in the f
Read more