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40 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What was the fear during and after the first Gulf War in the early 1990’s?
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Nature of their "germ weapon" capacity (could potentially kill everyone)
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What facility is in Manassas, VA? What is its function?
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American Type Culture Collection-- repository for virus and bacteria (used for study)
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How did Iraq obtain deadly microorganisms?
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Ordered them from the ATCC in VA through mail
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Who pioneered germ warfare? When and why did this begin?
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U.S. in 1943
Combat other nations who had begun to use these deadly weapons |
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What happened in Fort Detrick?
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Converted to a biological defense program in 1969 that was guarded by armed individuals
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What happens if you inhale Bacillus anthracis spores?
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Develop symptoms within a week ---> respiratory anthrax
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How is respiratory anthrax treated? What happens if it is not treated promptly?
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Antibiotics
If not treated within the first week of symptoms, the chances of survival are very low |
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What are other forms of anthrax? Are they more or less serious than respiratory anthrax?
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Skin and Intestinal
Less serious and more common |
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What methods did the US military design to deliver biological weapons?
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Sprayers and drones (delivered through exhaust smoke)
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What is a major advantage (militarily) to biological weapons? Why did the US also see this as a disadvantage?
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Advantage: delay between delivery and effect (good for indiscriminate targets)
Disadvantage: too imprecise and not needed |
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What US president renounced bio-weapons? When? Did other countries agree?
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Nixon in 1969
Yes, over 100 countries did, including the Soviet Union |
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What facility was found in Kazakhstan? When was it built? Why is this significant?
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Largest Biochemical weapon plant in history
Created in 1982 (showed that Soviets had violated the treaty) |
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The Soviet Union “weaponized” the agents for which diseases? What type of organism causes these diseases? What is different about these diseases compared to anthrax?
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Ebola and Marburg, viruses that are incurable and cause hemorrhagic fever
They have a higher death rate than anthrax |
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Compare the effects of TNT, gas or bio-weapons in a warhead.
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TNT: 10,000m^2
GAS: 1,000,000m^2 BIO WEAPONS: 5,000,000-15,000,000m^2 |
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Describe what happened (in relation to bio-weapons) when the USSR broke up.
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People with expertise were released and forced to look for work...people began to employ their talented skills for cheap
Lots of equipment became available |
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How has biotechnology changed bio-weapon production?
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Produced in large quantities
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What is the difficult step in producing a bio-weapon?
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Processing the germs into an inhalable form
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What is the ideal size of a particle for a bio-weapon?
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2-5 Microns
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What is an advantage/disadvantage to a “dry” bio-weapon?
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Advantage: easy to disseminate
Disadvantage: hard to prepare the product to a disseminate (aerosolize it) |
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Why is the electrostatic charge of a particle important?
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Needs to be removed from the bio-weapon in order for it to disseminate (aerosolized form)
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In the anthrax scare in the fall of 2001-what was unique about the anthrax “powder”? What did this indicate about the source of this anthrax?
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Aerosolized Anthrax
Source knew what they were doing when they disseminated the product |
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Why is smallpox not an ideal bio-weapon?
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-Hard to perform a large scale attack
-Only contagious when the victim obviously has symptoms -Debilitating (hard to spread if the victim isn't making contact with many people) |
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What organism did the followers of Sri Ragneesh of Oregon use in germ warfare? What term is used to describe this type of agent?
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Salmonella, an incapacitating agent
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Has the US or Soviet Union used bio-weapons?
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Not that we conclusively know of
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What is different about the development of bio-weapons in the Soviet Union?
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Much more advanced techniques are already prepared
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What types of techniques did the Soviet Union use in the development of bio-weapons?
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Genetic engineering with plasmids to create harsher forms of old germs/diseases
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In the “synthetic” bio-weapon developed by the Soviet scientist profiled, what happened to the test animals and why? What is significant about this in terms of germ warfare?
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Doctors could not diagnose the animals
Animals often died of abnormal symptoms as there nervous system was often attacked by the "self" Shows that synthetic bio-weapons could be massively destructive |
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Are terrorists likely to use “designer bugs”? Why or why not? What are “oldie-moldies”?
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No because of their means/needs
Anthrax, Botulism, and Plague |
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What happened in the early disaster drills after 9/11?
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The chaos led to overwhelming coordination and communication
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What is being done now to combat the threat of germ warfare?
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-Development of high tech, traveling equipment
-Large stockpiles of vaccines and antibiotics -Extensive research for etiology |
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What are the usual symptoms of the disease in Contagion?
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-Seize
-Heart Failure -Foaming at the Mouth -Chills -Rapid Death |
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What is Rsub0 represent?
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The number of people that an infected individual is likely to infect OR reproduction rate of the virus
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How do they believe the virus may be transmitted in Contagion?
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Respiratory or Fomites
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What types of sequencing does the disease in Contagion share with other animals?
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Pig and Bat
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What is the first problem that they have with creating a vaccine?
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The virus kills any cell that the scientists try to grow it in
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What is the name of the virus?
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MEV1
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Where do they believe that Beth Emhoff contracted the disease?
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Contracted it from a man she shook hands with at a restaurant in Hong Kong who had touched the infected mouth of a slaughtered pig which had eaten a banana infected by a virus that came from a bat
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What drug does the blogger Allen convince his readers is the key to protecting yourself from the MEV-1 virus?
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Forsythia
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What vaccine does Hextall finally see work? How does she know the vaccine worked?
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Vaccine #57
This monkey who had been injected with the disease and vaccine had not died |
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How does the CDC determine who gets vaccinated?
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Decide to have a drawing based on birth date
First Date is 3/10 |
