Bioterroist threat Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bioterroist threat - Essay Example Terrorists value biological weapons due to their ability to cause mass panic among the people. Moreover, such threats cause massive disruption in the operation of a country making terrorists achieve their target. Bacteria are free-living microscopic organisms that are known to occupy extreme habitats. These organisms have no cell membrane and most of the other organelles found in ordinary cells. This makes it complex to identify effective agents or medicine to deal with such organism. Bacterium such as anthrax are highly contagious and, hence their application in biological warfare. Moreover, anthrax causes high mortality due to its low incubation period. Anthrax bacteria also transform into spores to survive extreme condition such as high temperatures, extreme radiation, and lack of water or nutrients. Such characters makes the bacteria indestructible and, hence an effective warfare agent. Viruses are cellular organisms that thrive as parasites in other living cells. Unlike bacteria and fungus, viruses are not considered living organisms since they lack nucleic acid replication mechanism that is present in other single celled organisms such as bacteria. When viruses occupy a living cell, they interfere with normal cell metabolism, causing death of the cell. Infected cells releases a protein compound knows as Cytokines in response to the attack. This agent is responsible for the resultant symptoms. However, it is difficult to differentiate between viral and cell processes. This makes it difficult for scientists to develop anti-viral medicines. Viruses are effective agents of biological terrorism since they are easy to transport and disseminate (Block, 2001). In particular, viral agents can be transported in aerosol form making them attractive to terrorists. Chimera virus is potential viral agents for biological weapons. The viruses are generated by injecting genetic ma terials of other viruses