Page 2 of 22

Even before the biological revolution of the nineteenth century, governments and individuals used biological weapons. However, exact dates as to the first use of these weapons are difficult to determine. Because war causes both disruptions in food supplies and the spread of disease along military and refugee routes, differentiating between naturally occurring diseases and those which are intentionally released upon a population has often been difficult, if not impossible.²

But while the origins of biological warfare are in dispute, its nature is not. At the most basic level, biological weapons seek "to overcome [an] enemy's effort to...defend against sickness by deliberately disseminating infectious biological material."³ Typically, these weapons rely on multiple approaches to achieve this goal-users of biological weapons employ biological agents to cause death or illness or to damage the food supply, causing starvation and economic disruption. Before the antibiotic revolution of the 1940s and 1950s, creators and users of these weapons were broad-minded in their tastes, employing any and all diseases. Widespread use of antibiotics-which began in the late 1940s-dimmed the lure of bacterial diseases and many scientists, especially in America and the Soviet Union, shifted their emphasis to viruses.⁴ Viruses presented two important advantages over bacteria. First, viruses are often invulnerable to antibiotics. Second, while bacteria such as anthrax require large doses before they can infect the human body, viruses are generally more compact and more deadly-less does more, in other words.

continue