Biological Threats and Terrorism
Item Details
Title
Biological Threats and Terrorism
Topics
This report summarizes a workshop of the Forum on Emerging Infectious Diseases in which members explored the current scientific understanding of threatening pathogens and what measures have been put in place to better monitor, prevent, and respond to their emergence.
Date
2002
Conclusions
There are a plethora of potential bioterrorism agents. Anthrax is of immediate concern due to the recent attacks. Smallpox is also of great concern due to its transmissibility. It takes only 2 or 3 years to produce a new bioweapon while it takes closer to 10 years to create a new vaccine or pharmaceutical. The current biodefense arsenal is inadequate and very little progress has been made in recent years in the development of new products. Vaccine development is important as it is harder to engineer a vaccine resistant drug than an antibiotic resistant drug, so they can serve as a deterrent.
Source
Knobler, S., et al. Biological Threats and Terrorism: Assessing the Capabilities. Institute of Medicine, The National Academies Press. 2002. https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10290/biological-threats-and-terrorism-assessing-the-science-and-response-capabilities. Accessed March, 2024.
Citation
“Biological Threats and Terrorism,” Collection of Biothreat Risk Assessments (COBRA), accessed January 15, 2025, https://cobrabiosecurity.org/items/show/543.