2. Bioterrorism
Bioterrorism is the deliberate release of
viruses, bacteria, toxins or other harmful
agents to cause illness or death in people,
animals, or plants.
These agents are typically found in
nature, but could be mutated or altered to
increase their ability to cause disease, make
them resistant to current medicines, or to
increase their ability to be spread into the
environment.
3. Bioterrorism and Food Safety
Food terrorism is an act or threat of deliberate
contamination of food for human consumption
with chemical, biological or radionuclear agents
for the purpose of causing injury or death to
civilian populations and/or disrupting social,
economic or political stability.
4. Bioterrorism
• Biological agents can be spread
through the air, water or in food.
• Biological agents are attractive to
terrorists because they are
extremely difficult to detect and do
not cause illness for several hours to
several days.
5. Bioterrorism
Bioterrorism may be favored
because biological agents are
relatively easy and inexpensive to
obtain, can be easily disseminated,
and can cause widespread fear and
panic beyond the actual physical
damage.
6. Biological Agents of Bioterrorism
The US ‘Centre for Disease Control and
Prevention’ (CDCP) has classified potential
bioterrorism agents into three priority
categories, labeled A, B, and C on the basis of
their
1. Ability to be disseminated,
2. mortality rates,
3. capability of causing public panic and actions
required for public health preparedness
8. Characteristics of Essential Bio-agents for Bio-terrorism
1. It should ensure mass casualties and civil disruption .
2. They should have infectivity, toxicity and
environmental stability.
3. There should be ease in large-scale production.
4. Once used for destruction they should cover large
geographical area and should have massive disease
severity properties .
5. Ability of being communicable from person to person.
6. Bio-agent used in mass infection should have no
treatment or vaccine.
7. It should be improved for severity through genetic
engineering as well as other weaponization processes.
9. Examples of Bio-Agents Used for Bio-
terrorism
Variola major (smallpox) could be a
potential bioweapon as no vaccine is
available against it.
• Ricin ( Ricinus communis ) toxin was used
as bio weapon in World War I to be
inhaled into the lungs.
• Salmonella typhimurium bacteria causes
severe food poisoning.
10. Effective Control Measures
This can be achieved through multimodal and
multiagency approach and many of these
approaches are relatively straightforward. Effective
control measures against bioterrorism include:
i). Biosecurity
ii). Vigilance tools
iii). Research programs by NIAID
iv). Planning for risk management
v). Bioterrorism act
11. 1.Biosecurity
It is the method to protect and control the
unauthorized access, loss, theft, intentional release
thereby risk of transmission of infectious diseases in
crops and livestock, quarantined pests, invasive alien
species and living modified organisms (Koblentz,
2010).
• Biosecurity term is used in various context including
food and agriculture biosecurity, industry
biosecurity, laboratory biosecurity, farming
biosecurity etc.
12. 2. Vigilance tools
• Vigilance tools are the activities, events
or regulatory actions required for early
assessment, detection and endorsement
of bio-agent meant for bio-terrorism, for
mitigation of circumstances for
epidemiological capability and
population risk.
13. 3. Research programs by National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
The NIAID has placed a major
emphasis on generating
information on the genetic make-
up of agents coupled with
knowledge in biochemistry,
microbiology and immunology.
14. 4. Planning for risk management
Initiatives against bioterrorism in
India
The ‘Defense Research and Development
Establishment’ (DRDE) is the India’s primary bio
defense laboratory of the ‘Defense Research and
Development Organization’ (DRDO), located in
Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. They are mainly involved
in the development of defense against malicious
(harmful) biological, chemical as well as
toxicological materials.
15. Initiatives against bioterrorism in
India
The ‘Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials,
Equipment, and Technologies’ (SCOMET)
guidelines of India provide export product control
list that include goods, technologies and services.
In November 2004, ‘Integrated Disease
Surveillance Project’ (IDSP) was started by the
Government of India that integrates the rural and
urban health system as well as the government and
the private sector for communicable and non-
communicable disease information.
16. Initiatives against bioterrorism in India
India has also revised ‘International Health
Regulations’ (IHR) that came into force in June
2007 for rapid detection and countermeasures of
health emergencies
‘National Disaster Management Authority’
(NDMA) in partnership with the ‘Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare and State Governments’
(MOHFW) has started projects on the up-gradation
of BSL laboratories and creation of Trauma Centers
17. ‘Department of Health Research’ (DHR)
planned 160 virology laboratories throughout the
country in12th Five Year Plan (Mourya et al., 2014).
ICMR network and the DHR supported institutes
have already established sixteen BSL-2/BSL-3 (BSL-
Bio safety Level) laboratories and several BSL-3
laboratories are straightforward at theirstrategic
locations as per XII Plan document (2012-2017),
DHR, Government of India (Callaway, 2012).
BSL-4 laboratory facility is available in
‘Microbial Containment Complex’ (MCC) of
‘National Institute of Virology’ (NIV), Pune which is
the first of its kind in the Asian region
18. 5. Bioterrorism act
• The events of September 11, 2001, reinforced
the need to pass several laws to better
prepare the Nation against bioterrorism
(Table- 3)
21. • Institutes/ BSL-3(Bio safety Level) Laboratories
Working for Communicable Disease Control in India
1. ‘Institute of Microbial Technology’ (IMTECH),
Chandigarh;
2. ‘National Centre For Disease Control’ (NCDC),
New Delhi;
3. ‘
Centre for Animal Disease Research and
Diagnosis’, ICAR-IVRI, Izatnagar (Uttar Pradesh);
4. ‘National Research Centre on Equines’, Hisar
(Haryana);
5. ‘Lala Ram Sarup Institute of Tuberculosis &
Respiratory Diseases Hospital’, New Delhi;
22. Institutes/ BSL-3(Bio safety Level) Laboratories Working for Communicable Disease Control in India ......................contd.
6. ‘National Institute of Mental Health and
Neuro Sciences’ (NIMHANS), Bangalore
(Karnataka);
7. ‘National Institute of Cholera and Enteric
Diseases’, Kolkata (West Bengal);
8. ‘International Centre for Genetic
Engineering and Biotechnology’ (ICGEB), New
Delhi
