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Two types of weapons of mass destruction--chemical and biological agents--have moved to the center of attention. The Poor Man's Nukes |
There are numerous weapons of mass destruction--those that can wipe out military units or populations. What follows is a look at what American troops and civilians could be facing. The list is not exhaustive.
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| Nation | Biological Weapons | Chemical Weapons |
| China | Possesses infrastructure necessary for biowar program. Likely has maintained an offensive biowar program. | Produces and is capable of using wide variety of agents. |
| India | Has R&D facilities geared toward biowar defense. | Has a sizable chemical industry and recently declared details of its chemwar program. |
| Iran | Possesses expertise and infrastructure to support biowar program. May have small quantities of agents; seeking larger capability. | Employed chemical agents on limited scale during IranIraq War. Produces chemical agents and is capable of use on limited scale. Seeking independent capability. |
| Iraq | May retain elements of its old [preGulf War] program, including some agents in missile warheads. Could restart some limited agent production quickly. | Probably has hidden precursor chemicals, agents, munitions, documentation for future effort. Could restart production and have small usable stockpile in several months. |
| Libya | Lacks scientific and technical base. Remains in R&D stage. | Employed chemical agents against Chadian troops in 1987; produced blister and nerve agents in 1980s; is building underground production facility. |
| N. Korea | Pursued biowar
R&D for many years. Possesses biotechnical infrastructure capable of supporting limited biowar effort. |
Produces and is capable of using wide variety of agents. |
| Pakistan | May have the capability to support a limited biowar program. | Has ability to transition from R&D to chemical agent production. |
| Syria | Possesses adequate biotechnical infrastructure to support biowar program. May be conducting research related to biowar. | Produces and is capable of using chemical agents. Seeking independent chemwar capability. |
Information on these pages is drawn from "Proliferation: Threat and Response," Department of Defense; "Biological Agent Information Papers" and "Medical Management of Biological Casualties Handbook," US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Ft. Detrick, Md.; and "Medical Management of Chemical Casualties Handbook," US Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.
| Bacterial Threats |
Anthrax
Description: Lethal disease caused by infection
with the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. In nature, organisms usually
enter the body through skin wounds but they may be inhaled or
ingested. Intentional release by belligerents or terrorist groups
would presumably involve aerosol means.
Symptoms: The incubation period for inhaled anthrax is one to six days. Fever, malaise, fatigue, cough, and chest discomfort are rapidly followed by severe respiratory distress. Shock and death occur within 24 to 36 hours of the onset of severe symptoms. In cases of cutaneous anthrax, a papule develops, then vesicates, finally developing into a black patch surrounded by moderate to severe edema. Without treatment, this disease may progress to blood poisoning and death, with a case-fatality rate of 20 percent. With treatment, fatalities are rare.
Treatment: Penicillin, ciprofloxacin, or doxycycline, though they are usually ineffective against inhaled anthrax once symptoms appear.
Protection: A licensed vaccine is available for use in those at risk of exposure.
Brucellosis
Description: An infection caused by any of four
species of coccobacilli of the genus Brucella. One is normally
a pathogen of cattle, while the other three are pathogens of goats,
pigs, and dogs. Organisms are acquired by humans through the ingestion
of unpasteurized milk and cheese, inhalation of aerosols generated
on farms and in slaughterhouses, or skin lesions on persons with
animal contact. Intentional exposure by belligerents would likely
involve aerosolization but could involve contamination of food.
Symptoms: Symptoms of brucellosis are nonspecific and consist of irregular fever, headache, profound weakness and fatigue, chills and sweating, and generalized arthralgias and myalgias. Depression and mental status changes are noteworthy. Osteoarthritic complications, particularly involving the axial skeleton, are common. Fatalities are uncommon, even in the absence of therapy.
Treatment: Antibiotics.
Protection: No human brucellosis vaccine is available.
Cholera
Description: An incapacitating infection caused
by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, acquired by ingestion of contaminated
water or food. The disease manifests itself as a watery diarrhea
so profuse that supplies of IV fluids are often exhausted during
epidemics. Intentional use by belligerents or terrorist groups
would presumably involve contamination of food or water sources.
Cholera is not itself lethal, but with heavy casualties and the
breakdown in medical care often found in wartime, a large number
of deaths is possible.
Symptoms: Incubation takes one to five days. While a large number of infected persons remain asymptomatic, the "classic" form of cholera is noteworthy for its severity and sudden onset. Vomiting, abdominal distention, and pain with little or no fever are followed rapidly by a profuse, watery diarrhea. Fluid losses may readily exceed 10 liters per day. Without treatment, death may result from severe dehydration and shock.
Treatment: Fluid and electrolyte replacement to prevent or overcome severe dehydration. Antibiotics.
Protection: A licensed vaccine is available but is only modestly effective, providing about 50 percent protection for six months.
Plague
Description: A lethal infectious disease caused
by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Naturally occurring plague is
acquired by bite of a flea that has previously fed on infected
rodents. Plague may also be transmitted via aerosol. In such instances,
a pneumonic form may develop and, in the absence of prompt therapy,
progress rapidly to death within three days. Intentional release
by belligerents or terrorists would presumably involve aerosols.
Symptoms: Pneumonic plague begins with high fever, chills, headache, and vomiting blood, progressing rapidly to difficulty breathing and lack of oxygen. Death results from respiratory failure, circulatory collapse, and bleeding. Bubonic plague has an incubation period of two to 10 days and causes malaise, high fever, and tender lymph nodes. Bubonic plague may progress spontaneously to the septic form, with spread to the central nervous system and lungs.
Treatment: Antibiotics must be started within 24 hours of onset of symptoms.
Protection: A licensed vaccine is available but appears to offer little protection against aerosol exposure.
Tularemia
Description: An infection caused by the bacillus
Francisella tularensis. Naturally acquired tularemia is contracted
through bites of certain insects (notably ticks and deerflies)
or contact with infected rabbits, muskrats, and squirrels. Intentional
release by belligerents would presumably involve aerosolization
of living organisms. Naturally acquired tularemia has a fatality
rate of five percent; the pneumonic form, which would predominate
in war, would likely have a greater mortality rate.
Symptoms: Incubation averages three to five days. Use of tularemia as a weapon would likely lead to preponderance of pneumonic and typhoidal cases, and large aerosolized attacks would be expected to shorten the incubation period. Victims would have tender ulcers at the site of inoculation, accompanied by tender, enlarged regional lymph nodes. Fever, chills, headache, and malaise often accompany these symptoms. Typhoidal and pneumonic forms often involve significant cough, abdominal pain, substernal discomfort, and prostration, in addition to fever, chills, and headache.
Treatment: Antibiotics, though relapses may occur.
Protection: A live, attenuated vaccine is available as an investigational product. Intramuscular streptomycin will prevent disease following documented exposure.
Q Fever
Description: An infection with the rickettsial
organism Coxiella burnetii, typically spread by inadvertent aerosolization
of organisms from infected animal products. Person-to-person transmission
rarely occurs. Intentional release by belligerents or terrorist
groups would presumably involve aerosolization, and Q fever would
likely be employed as an incapacitating agent, as its mortality
rate is low, only one to three percent.
Symptoms: Q fever typically starts as an undifferentiated illness with fever, chills, cough, headache, weakness, and chest pain occurring as early as 10 days after exposure. Onset may be sudden or insidious. Pneumonia is present in some cases, but pulmonary syndromes are usually not prominent. The illness lasts from two days to two weeks.
Treatment: Antibiotics. Q fever is generally a self-limited illness even without treatment.
Protection: Treatment with tetracycline or doxycycline within 12 days of exposure should prevent onset of symptoms. Vaccine is available as an investigational agent.
| Viral Threats |
Smallpox
Description: A lethal infection caused by the
variola virus, a member of the Chordopoxvirus family. Naturally
occurring smallpox has been eradicated from the globe, with the
last known case occurring in Somalia in 1977. Repositories of
virus are known to exist in only two laboratories. Monkeypox,
cowpox, and vaccinia are closely related viruses, however, which
might lend themselves to genetic manipulation and the subsequent
production of smallpox-like disease.
Symptoms: The incubation period of smallpox is about 12 days. Clinical manifestations begin acutely with a period involving malaise, fevers, rigors, vomiting, headache, and backache. After two to four days, skin lesions appear and begin to progress uniformly from macules to papules to vesicles and pustules. Lesions progress centrifugally and scab in one to two weeks. In unvaccinated individuals, variola major, the classical form of the disease, is fatal in some 30 percent of cases.
Treatment: Supportive care is the mainstay of smallpox therapy. No specific antiviral therapy exists.
Protection: A licensed, live vaccinia virus vaccine is available and is administered via a bifurcated needle using a multiple puncture technique. Vaccine would only be indicated in laboratory settings or where biological warfare was a distinct possibility.
Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis
Description: A mosquito-borne disease maintained
in a horsemosquitohorse cycle, though thousands of human infections
also occur each year. Large outbreaks among horses typically precede
appearance of human cases. Use of VEE as a weapon would presumably
involve aerosolization.
Symptoms: VEE is an incapacitating agent with a mortality rate of less than one percent. Susceptibility is nearly 100 percent, however. The disease is characterized by sudden onset following a one-to-five-day incubation. Initial symptoms include malaise, severe headache, fever and rigors, photophobia, and myalgias. Cough, sore throat, and vomiting and diarrhea may follow. Only a small percentage of cases actually progress to encephalitis, which is more frequent in young children and is marked by convulsions, coma, and paralysis. In a majority of cases without neurologic complications, however, full recovery occurs in one to two weeks.
Treatment: Largely supportive.
Protection: Vaccine TC-83 is available as investigational product.
Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers
Description: A diverse group of human illnesses
caused by viruses from several different families: the Filoviridae,
which consists of Ebola and Marburg viruses; the Arenaviridae,
including Lassa fever, Argentine, and Bolivian hemorrhagic fever
viruses; the Bunyaviridae, including various members from the
Hantavirus genus, CongoCrimean hemorrhagic fever virus from the
Nairovirus genus, and Rift Valley fever from the Phlebovirus genus;
and Flaviviridae, such as yellow fever virus, dengue hemorrhagic
fever virus, and others.
Symptoms: VHFs are illnesses which can be complicated by easy bleeding, petechiae, hypotension and even shock, flushing of the face and chest, and edema. Constitutional symptoms such as malaise, myalgias, headache, vomiting, and diarrhea may occur.
Treatment: Antiviral therapy with ribavirin may be useful in several of these infections.
Protection: The only licensed VHF vaccine is yellow fever vaccine. Prophylactic ribavirin may be effective for Lassa fever, Rift Valley fever, CCHF, and possibly hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome.
| Biotoxic Threats |
Botulism
Description: Lethal illness caused by any of
seven related neurotoxins produced by the bacterium Clostridium
botulinum. They are typically formed in canned foods and subsequently
ingested, although the spore form may occasionally gain access
to the body through wounds or gastrointestinal tract. Intentional
release by belligerents or terrorists would likely involve aerosolization
of preformed toxins, which then produce disease via inhalation.
Symptoms: Drooping eyelids, generalized weakness, dizziness, dry mouth and throat, blurred vision, slurred speech, and difficulty in swallowing are followed by symmetrical descending paralysis and the development of respiratory failure. Symptoms may begin as early as 12 to 36 hours following ingestion or inhalation but could take as long as several days.
Treatment: Supportive care is the mainstay of therapy. For respiratory failure, tracheostomy may be required. A licensed trivalent equine botulinum antitoxin is available.
Protection: Toxoid available as an investigational product.
Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B Disease
Description: An incapacitating illness caused
by SEB, one of several toxins produced by the bacterium Staphylococcus
aureus. SEB is a common contributor to food poisoning but could
be employed by belligerents or terrorist groups as an aerosolized
inhalational agent. It is incapacitating but rarely lethal.
Symptoms: Symptoms appear three to 12 hours after aerosol exposure and consist of sudden onset of fever, chills, headache, myalgia, and cough. Some patients may develop shortness of breath and retrosternal chest pain. Fever may last two to five days, and cough may persist for four weeks. Patients ingesting toxin might suffer nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Very high exposure levels may lead to pulmonary edema and, though rare, death.
Treatment: Treatment is limited to supportive care. No antitoxin has been developed.
Protection: Currently no human vaccine is available to prevent SEB intoxication.
Ricin Intoxication
Description: A lethal illness caused by ricin,
a protein toxin which acts as a cellular poison. Ricin is readily
produced from castor beans, ubiquitous throughout the world. Five
percent of all waste from commercial production of castor oil
is ricin. Natural cases of ricin intoxication involve ingestion
of castor beans, which causes severe GI symptoms, vascular collapse,
and death. Ricin use by belligerents might involve the poisoning
of water or foodstuffs, use of ricin-laced projectiles, or aerosolization
of ricin as a liquid or freeze-dried powder.
Symptoms: When inhaled as an aerosol, ricin would likely cause symptoms within eight hours. Fever, cough, difficulty breathing, nausea, and chest tightness are followed by profuse sweating, development of pulmonary edema, cyanosis, hypotension, and finally respiratory failure and circulatory collapse. Death would occur in 36 to 72 hours, depending on size of the dose.
Treatment: No specific antitoxin treatment exists.
Protection: A protective mask offers protection from aerosol exposure, but no specific vaccine exists.
Trichothecene Mycotoxicosis
Description: Disease caused by the trichothecene
mycotoxins, poisons produced by several species of fungi. Most
are potent inhibitors of protein synthesis and respiration. The
toxins most frequently isolated from agricultural products, and
likewise mentioned most often in the context of belligerent use,
include diacetoxyscirpenol (DAS), Nivalenol, 4-Deoxynivalenol
(DON), and especially T-2. T-2, one of the most stable types,
is perhaps the most likely to be employed in terrorism or warfare.
Intentional use of T-2 by belligerents might involve aerosolization
or contamination of food.
Symptoms: Skin exposure leads to symptoms within minutes, including redness of the skin, pain, and a burning sensation. Blisters form and progress to necrosis with a leathery blackening of the skin. Inhalational exposure produces a rapid onset of nose and throat pain, with nasal discharge, cough, labored breathing, wheezing, chest pain, and coughing up of blood. Eyes are likewise affected with intense burning. GI exposure leads to loss of appetite, nausea, abdominal cramping, and watery or bloody diarrhea.
Treatment: Standard poison management techniques, such as the use of superactivated charcoal, are useful when administered early to casualties with gastrointestinal exposure.
Protection: Physical means, such as a protective mask and clothing.
| Nerve Agents |
Tabun (GA), Sarin (GB), Soman (GD),
GF, VX
Description: The most toxic of the known chemical
agents. Nerve agents are extreme hazards in their liquid and vapor
states and can cause death minutes after exposure. Nerve agents
inhibit certain enzymes in tissue; effects are caused by resulting
excess compounds. Nerve agents are considered major military threats.
They can be dispersed from missiles, rockets, bombs, howitzer
shells, spray tanks, land mines, and other large munitions.
Symptoms: Small exposure to vapor brings constriction of the pupils, nasal inflammation, and mild difficulty breathing, while a large exposure to vapor causes sudden loss of consciousness, convulsions, a halt in breathing, paralysis, and death. Small to moderate exposure of liquid on skin produces localized sweating, nausea, vomiting, and a feeling of weakness, while a large exposure to liquid on skin has same effect as vapor exposure. Lethal amounts of vapor or liquid cause a rapid cascade of events culminating, within a minute or two, with loss of consciousness and convulsive activity followed by a halt in breathing within several more minutes.
Treatment: Three drugs--atropine, pralidoxime chloride, and diazepam--are used to treat nerve agent exposure.
Protection: Pyridostigmine bromide as a pretreatment. Protective masks, clothing.
| Vesicant Agents |
Mustard (H, HD)
Description: A major military threat agent since its
introduction in World War I, mustard is an oily liquid with color
ranging from a light yellow to brown and has an odor of garlic,
onion, or mustard (hence its name). Mustard constitutes both a
vapor and a liquid threat to exposed skin and mucous membranes.
Effects are delayed, appearing hours after exposure. A vesicant,
it causes vesicles (blisters) on the skin; however, these agents
also damage the eyes and airways by direct contact and have other
effects.
Symptoms: Blisters on the skin; irritation, conjunctivitis, corneal opacity, and damage in the eyes; mild upper respiratory irritation and burning progresses to marked airway damage; also nausea and vomiting and bone marrow damage. Organs most commonly affected are skin, eyes (with mild conjunctivitis to severe eye damage), and airways (with mild irritation of the upper respiratory tract to severe bronchiolar damage leading to necrosis and hemorrhage of the airway). The GI tract may be damaged. Death stems from respiratory failure, bacterial pneumonia, or immune system failure.
Treatment: No specific antidote. Immediate decontamination is the only way to reduce damage.
Protection: Protective mask, clothing.
Lewisite (L)
Description: An oily, colorless liquid, having
the odor of geraniums. It is a vesicant that damages eyes, skin,
and airways by direct contact. After absorption, it causes an
increase in capillary permeability to produce shock and organ
damage.
Symptoms: Lewisite causes immediate pain or irritation of skin and mucous membranes. Blisters on the skin, and eye and airway damage similar to those seen after mustard exposure, develop later. A person with a droplet of Lewisite on his skin will note the burning and will immediately take steps to try to remove it. The vapor is so irritating that a person will seek to leave a contaminated area. Because this warning causes the person exposed to take immediate steps to decontaminate, the Lewisite lesion will probably not be as severe as a mustard lesion.
Treatment: Immediate decontamination and treatment of lesions. A specific antidote, BritishAnti-Lewisite, decreases systemic effects but causes some toxicity itself.
Protection: Protective mask, clothing.
Phosgene Oxime (CX)
Description: Phosgene oxime is an itchingstinging
agent that causes a corrosive skin and tissue lesion. The vapor
is extremely irritating, and both vapor and liquid cause almost
immediate tissue damage. The mechanism by which phosgene oxime
causes biological effects is unknown.
Symptoms: On the skin and all mucous membranes, CX liquid or vapor causes immediate pain on contact. Extreme pain may persist for days. It is irritating and painful to the eyes and upper airways. Agent causes pulmonary edema after inhalation and after skin contact. Some data suggest that CX may cause hemorrhagic inflammatory changes in the GI tract.
Treatment: Immediate decontamination.
Protection: Protective mask, clothing.
| Cyanide Agents |
Hydrocyanic Acid (AC), Cyanogen
Chloride (CK)
Description: A rapidly acting lethal agent that
is limited in its military usefulness by its high volatility.
However, at high concentrations, cyanide kills quickly. Cyanides
are sometimes called "blood agents." Cyanides are in
liquid state in munitions but rapidly vaporize upon detonation
of the munitions.
Symptoms: After exposure to heavy dose, seizures, respiratory failure, and cardiac arrest appear. The organs most susceptible to cyanide are the central nervous system and the heart. Most clinical effects are of CNS origin and are nonspecific. About 15 seconds after inhalation of concentrated vapor, there is abnormally deep breathing followed in 15 to 30 seconds by convulsions. Respiratory activity stops two to three minutes later, and cardiac activity ceases several minutes later still or at about six to eight minutes after exposure.
Treatment: Sodium nitrite and sodium thiosulfate are effective antidotes. Amyl nitrite also is useful.
Protection: Protective mask, clothing.
| Pulmonary Agents |
Phosgene, Others
Description: A lung-damaging liquid dispersed
in a liquid-filled shell that explodes, rapidly vaporizing as
a low-lying, white cloud of gas. It has a characteristic odor
of sweet, newly mown hay or freshly cut grass or corn.
Symptoms: After a latent period, the victim experiences worsening respiratory distress that at first is unaccompanied by signs of pulmonary damage but that may progress relentlessly to death. Irritation of the larynx by very large concentrations of the agent may lead to sudden laryngeal spasm and death. The most prominent symptom following the latent period is difficulty breathing, perceived as shortness of breath with or without chest tightness. Death results from respiratory failure or in combination with the effects of lack of oxygen to vital organs and tissues. Complications include infection of damaged lungs and delayed death following such respiratory infections.
Treatment: No antidote.
Protection: Protective mask, clothing.