The Weapon Potential of a Microbe

Item Details

Title

The Weapon Potential of a Microbe

Topics

Relationship between virulence and weapon potential, with consideration of a variety of quantitative parameters.

Date

2004

Conclusions

Calculates the weapon potential of four agents, in descending order: B. anthracis, variola virus, HIV, Candida albicans. Notes that the true weapon potential is not calculable for many agents, since there is a paucity of the requisite information to input into the equation. Also propose a number of factors that could act as multipliers.

Source

Casadevall, A. and Pirofski, L.A. The Weapon Potential of a Microbe. Trends in Microbiology, 12(6). June, 2004. p. 259-263. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7133335/. Accessed March, 2024.

Citation

“The Weapon Potential of a Microbe,” Collection of Biothreat Risk Assessments (COBRA), accessed January 15, 2025, https://cobrabiosecurity.org/items/show/553.