Epidemie i bioterroryzm zagrożeniem w XXI wieku
Płk emer. prof. dr hab. n. med. Andrzej Denys
W pracy dokonano przeglądu zagadnień związanych z możliwością użycia drobnoustrojów jako broni biologicznej., drobnoustroje te można wyosobnić z próbek pobranych ze środowiska. Produkcja broni biologicznej jest stosunkowo łatwa, nie wymaga skomplikowanych technologii. Broń biologiczna nie jest natychmiast wykrywalna, objawy występują po kilku dniach.
Identyfikacja drobnoustrojów użytych w ataku jest czasochłonna, wymaga skomplikowanych metod, istotne trudności wynikają z możliwości użycia drobnoustrojów modyfikowanych genetycznie
Gorączki krwotoczne są grupą chorób, w których występują podwyższona temperatura oraz zaburzenia krzepnięcia krwi – wirusy Ebola, Lassa. Do kategorii A zaliczamy także toksynę botulinową.Obliczono, że 1 gram tej toksyny może zabić milion osób.
Podejmowanie działań ratunkowych zależy od szybkiego rozpoznania patogenu biologicznego.
Badania takie mogą być wykonywane tylko w laboratoriach odpowiednio zabezpieczonych.
Aktualnie w naszych warunkach jedyną służbą przystosowaną do szybkiego rozpoznania zagrożeń biologicznych jest wojskowa służba zdrowia: Zespoły Rozpoznania Biologicznego z zadaniem pobierania i zabezpieczenia materiału biologicznego, wstępne rozpoznania i transport do Ośrodka Diagnostyki i Zwalczania Zakażeń Biologicznych WIHE w Puławach.
Obecna sytuacja międzynarodowa sugeruje realną możliwość użycia broni biologicznej.
We współczesnym świecie choroby zakaźne mogą szerzyć się z dużą prędkością, wiąże się to z podróżami, masową produkcją żywności. Nowe choroby, choroby dawne osiągające nowe cechy są istotnym elementem zagrożeń zdrowia publicznego. Zmiany środowiskowe takie jak ocieplenie klimatu, zatrucia środowiska pestycydami, środkami dezynfekcyjnymi przy braku w pełni skutecznych szczepionek sprzyjają szerzeniu się chorób zakaźnych. [1
Wiele zakażeń przekracza bariery gatunkowe, zoonozy, np. bakterie wywołujące chorobę z Lyme, wirus wścieklizny, wirusy grypy ptasiej. Ostateczny rezultat epidemii zależy od dwóch czynników, tj. odporności populacji ludzkiej oraz profesjonalizmu służby zdrowia. Drobnoustroje pojawiające się powinny być szybko identyfikowane. Wybuch SARS wskazywał na znaczenie występowania wirusów Korona u zwierząt w Chinach. [2]
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BROŃ BIOLOGICZNA?
Film. Napisy j.polski
Były gubernator Jesse Ventura twierdzi że borelioza jest bronią biologiczną.Ventura przeprowadził wywiad z Neilem Grossmanem na potrzeby swojej serii telewizyjnej Conspiracy Theory - Grossman zajmuje się tematem Plum Island i położonym na niej Centrum Chorób Zwierzęcych. Powiedział że rząd amerykański wynajął byłego nazistowskiego naukowca Erica Trauba, który infekował kleszcze różnymi chorobami zwierzęcymi w celu stworzenia zarazy atakującej wybrane społeczności.
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BIOTERRORYZM
Bioterroryzm to rodzaj terroryzmu definiowany, jako bezprawne, nielegalne użycie czynników biologicznych wobec ludzi z zamiarem wymuszenia jakiegoś działania lub zastraszenia rządu, ludności cywilnej, lub jakiejkolwiek jej części, dla osiągnięcia celów osobistych, politycznych, społecznych lub religijnych.
Czynnikiem rażenia są mikroorganizmy, bakterie, riketsje, grzyby, toksyny, produkowane przez niektóre mikroorganizmy, a także trucizny roślinne.
Często, wymienione środki, są dodatkowo modyfikowane, aby stanowiły jeszcze większe zagrożenie dla zdrowia i życia ludzi, zwierząt, a także roślin. Drobnoustroje chorobotwórcze mogą być przenoszone za pomocą pocisków rakietowych, bomb lotniczych, pojemników czy przesyłek listowych. Rozprzestrzenianiu się szkodliwych substancji sprzyjają także, wcześniej zarażeni, naturalni nosiciele –owady: pchły, kleszcze, pluskwy, wszy odzieżowe, muchy, komary. Mogą one przenosić drobnoustroje bezpośrednio na ludzi, wodę bądź żywność. [1]. Bezobjawowi nosiciele danej choroby zakaźnej są w stanie łatwo przemieszczać się na duże odległości
Ataki bioterrorystyczne są trudne do wykrycia, gdyż mikroorganizmy są łatwe do ukrycia i transportu, a już niewielka ich ilość jest groźna i skuteczna. Są to środki, które łatwo można rozpylić w miejscach publicznych: teatrze, metrze, hali sportowej. Nie jest problemem zanieczyszczenie wody w wodociągach czy produktów spożywczych w fabrykach. Łatwo rozpylić je także z wysokich budynków czy mostów.
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CDC's strategic plan for bioterrorism preparedness and response 2001
Established the epidemic Intelligence Service in 1951; --Participated in global smallpox eradication and other immunization programs; --Estimated 800-1,000 + field investigations/year since late 1990s; --New diseases: Legionnaire's Disease, toxic shock syndrome, Lyme disease, HIV, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, West Nile, etc. --
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Tick-borne virus diseases of human interest in Europe
ABSTRACT
Several human diseases in Europe are caused by viruses transmitted by tick bite. These viruses belong to the genus Flavivirus, and include tick-borne encephalitis virus, Omsk haemorrhagic fever virus, louping ill virus, Powassan virus, Nairovirus (Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus) and Coltivirus (Eyach virus). All of these viruses cause more or less severe neurological diseases, and some are also responsible for haemorrhagic fever. The epidemiology, clinical picture and methods for diagnosis are detailed in this review. Most of these viral pathogens are classified as Biosafety Level 3 or 4 agents, and therefore some of them have been classified in Categories A–C of potential bioterrorism agents by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their ability to cause severe disease in man means that these viruses, as well as any clinical samples suspected of containing them, must be handled with specific and stringent precautions.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1198743X14638453
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One theory—compelling but controversial—about the sudden emergence of the disease in Connecticut blames the accidental release of infected ticks during experiments at Plum Island Animal Disease Center, on Long Island Sound about eight miles south of Lyme.
Originally operated by the U.S. Army, then by the Department of Agriculture, and now by the Department of Homeland Security, the facility's official mandate is defense research relating to agricultural bioterrorism
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SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- The $10.6 million Margaret Batts Tobin Laboratory Building will provide a 22,000-square-foot facility to study such diseases as anthrax, tularemia, cholera, lyme disease, desert valley fever and other parasitic and fungal diseases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified these diseases as potential bioterrorism agents.".
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10039154/
So, for the first time, a US government body admits that Lyme disease is a biological warfare agent. This is the reason that hundreds of thousands of men, women and children around the world have been left to rot with wrong diagnoses, or have had their Lyme disease acknowledged but been told that it is an "easily-treated" disease, given 3 weeks' antibiotics, then told to shove off when their symptoms carried on after that.
In Britain the existence of the epidemic is denied completely, and virtually no effort made to warn or educate the public about the dangers of ticks, which carry the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi.
The Borrelia genus has been a subject of biowar experimentation at least as far back as WW2, when the infamous Japanese Unit 731, which tortured and experimented on live prisoners, studied it.
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Weapons of Mass Infection
The development of biological weapons has never been confined to dictatorships or 'rogue' regimes. During the Second World War America, Britain and Canada collaborated closely on developing offensive bioweapons, and offensive research continued as an openly acknowledged activity of the US scientific establishment during the Cold War. Only in 1972 was this work banned by international treaty. Meanwhile the Maryland-based labs at Fort Detrick, for example, had produced millions of mosquitoes, ticks and other vectors for the purpose of spreading lethal germs. The island of Gruinard, off the coast of Scotland, was only declared habitable again in 1990, nearly fifty years after the British first contaminated it during anthrax experiments. [ii]
Ticks, which vector Lyme disease, have been studied as biowarfare instruments for decades. Such well-known biowar agents as tularaemia and Q-fever are tick-borne. The Borrelia genus of bacteria, which encompasses the Borrelia burgdorferi species-group (to which Lyme disease is attributed), was studied by the infamous WW2 Japanese biowar Unit 731, who carried out horrific experiments on prisoners in Manchuria, including dissection of live human beings. [iii] Unit 731 also worked on a number of other tick-borne pathogens.
After the war, the butchers of Unit 731 were shielded from prosecution by the US authorities, who wanted their expertise for the Cold War. [iv] The US government also protected and recruited German **** bioweaponeers under the aegis of the top-secret Operation Paperclip. [v]
Borreliosis, or infection with microbes belonging to the borrelia genus, had been dreaded during the Second World War as a cause of the often-fatal disease relapsing fever. The new post-war era of penicillin meant that many bacterial infections could now be easily cured. However, borrelia were known for their ability to adopt different forms under conditions of stress (such as exposure to antibiotics). Shedding their outer wall, (which is the target of penicillin and related drugs), they could ward off attack and continue to exist in the body.
Lyme disease is not usually fatal, and it is sometimes argued that, with rapidly lethal agents like smallpox and plague available, an army would have no interest in it. However, what is important to understand here is that incapacitating or 'non-lethal' bioweapons are a major part of biowarfare R&D[vi], and have been for decades. For example, during the Second World War, brucellosis, chronically disabling but not usually fatal, was a major preoccupation. Military strategists understand that disabling an enemy's soldiers can sometimes cause more damage than killing them, as large amount of resources are then tied up in caring for the casualties. An efficient incapacitating weapon dispersed over a civilian population could destroy a country's economy and infrastructure without firing a shot. People would either be too sick to work, or too busy looking after those who were.
The EIS and the 'Discovery' of Lyme
Modern Lyme history begins in 1975 when a mother in the town of Old Lyme, Connecticut reported the outbreak of a strange, multi-system disease. The town lies directly opposite the Plum Island biowarfare research lab where, according to former Justice official John Loftus, **** scientists brought to the US after WW2 may have test-dropped 'poison ticks'. [vii] It should be noted that Loftus' reputation for gathering accurate, hard-hitting information is strong - strong enough to bring down in disgrace the former Chancellor of Austria and Secretary-General of the UN Kurt Waldheim, after the latter's wartime SS record was revealed.
While it's not yet known if Plum Island experimented on Lyme-causing borrelia, the lab's directors openly admitted to Michael Carroll, author of a recently-published book which is endorsed by two former State Governors, that they kept 'tick colonies'. The 'hard tick' Amblyomma americanum, a known carrier of Borrelia burgdorferi, was one of the subjects of the Island's experiments. [viii]This tick is not the one most commonly associated with transmitting Borrelia burgdorferi, but it is implicated in harbouring Borrelia lonestari, believed to be the cause of a 'Lyme-like illness' in the American south. [ix]
Carroll's book reveals a shocking disregard for safety, in this lab handling some of the most dangerous germs on earth. Eyewitnesses described how infected animals were kept in open-air pens. Birds swooping down into the pens could have picked up and spread infected ticks worldwide.
When Polly Murray made her now-famous call to the Connecticut health department to report the strange epidemic among children and adults in her town, her initial reception was lukewarm. However, some weeks later, she got an unexpected call from a Dr David Snydman, of the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS), who was very interested. He arranged for fellow EIS officer Dr Allen Steere to get involved. By the time Mrs. Murray turned up for her appointment at Yale, the doctor she had expected to see had been relegated to the role of an onlooker. Allen Steere had taken charge - and his views were to shape the course of Lyme medicine for the next thirty years, up till today. [x]
To understand the significance of all this, we need a closer look at the Epidemic Intelligence Service, the EIS.
The EIS is an elite, quasi-military unit of Infectious Disease experts set up in the 1950's to develop an offensive biowarfare capability. Despite the banning of offensive biowar in the 1970's, the crack troops of the EIS continue to exist, ostensibly for non-offensive research into 'emerging disease' threats, a blanket phrase covering both bioweapon attacks and natural epidemics at the same time. Graduates of the EIS training program are sent in to occupy strategic positions in the US health infrastructure, taking leadership at federal and state health agencies, in academia, industry and the media. The organisation also extends its influence abroad, training officers for public health agencies in Britain, France, the Netherlands etc. [xi] [xii]
In fact a high proportion of Steere camp Lyme experts are involved with the EIS. Given that the EIS is a small, elite force, (in 2001 the CDC revealed there were less than 2500 EIS officers in existence since the unit was first created in 1951 [xiii]), it seems incredible that so many of America's top Infectious Disease experts would devote their careers to what they themselves claim is a 'hard-to-catch, easily-cured' disease.
Within a few years of Steere's 'discovery' of Lyme disease (the unique Lyme rash, and certain associated symptoms, had been recognised in Europe nearly a century before), it was announced that its bacterial cause had been identified. The microbe was accidentally found by biowarfare scientist Willy Burgdorfer and was subsequently named for him. Burgdorfer has championed the Lyme patients' movement and is not suspected of any wrongdoing. However it is not impossible that he was unwittingly caught up in a chain of events that were not as random as they might have seemed.
Burgdorfer was a Swiss scientist who had been recruited by the US Public Health Service in the 1950's. He was highly experienced with both ticks and borrelia, but after being told that the government were not interesting in funding work with the latter, he switched to work with Rickettsia and other pathogens. [xiv] In 1981, Burgdorfer was sent a batch of deer ticks by a team studying Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever on the East Coast. In charge of the team was one Dr Jorge Benach. [xv] Benach subsequently spent much of his career as a Steere camp Lyme researcher. In 2004 he was chosen as recipient for a $3 million biowarfare research grant. [xvi]
http://www.elenacook.org/bwsept06.html
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