Human Disease

Nontransmissible diseases
don't spread from one person to another
Transmissible (infectious) diseases
- pathogens spread by air, water, food, body fluids
- pathogens spread by vectors:
  insects and other organisms
Biological Warfare

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Nontransmissible diseases:
not spread from one person to another

heart disease (~ 1/3 USA)
most cancers (~ 1/4 USA)
diabetes
Alzheimer's
malnutrition

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Transmissible diseases: # #

spread by air, water, food, body fluids
pathogens spread by vectors
- bacteria
- virus
parasite life cycles
- malaria life cycle 3^rd
- tapeworm life cycle (many others)

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Epidemics:

Peloponnesian War Typhoid 430 BC
Bubonic Plague Yersinia pestis AD 1542-1996
Spanish Flu influenza virus AD 1918-1919
Polio 1916-1956 virus (50,000/yr USA)
AIDS HIV virus 1981 -
Ebola virus 1976 -
West Nile virus 1999-
SARS virus 2002-3
Avian Flu virus 2005-

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Biological Warfare Agents

plutonium, polonium
Bacterial Spores
- Anthrax 2001 U.S.A.
- Tularemia 1940 China
- Salmonella 1984 Oregon
- (many others)
Biological Toxins
- Aflotoxin
- Botulinum 1990 Japan
- Ricin [Castor bean]

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Biological Warfare History

World War II
- Japanese experiments in China
- USA and USSR Development
Cold War
- USA and USSR stockpiles
- 1975 Biological Weapons Convention
Post- Cold War Terrorism
- Germany Oregon Japan
- Iraq ? gas Halabja Rotavirus ?
- Oct. - Dec. 2001

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Threat of development of biological weapons

Genetically engineered to produce a toxin, venom, or bioregulator.
Selection for antibiotics resistance
Selection for weapon properties (size)
Selection-Engineering to avoid diagnosis
LINKS: FAS OSD Gulf War USAMRIID

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