Emerging threat of Bio-Terrorism: An international perspective

From the point of view of a terrorist, the ideal biologic weapon is one that can be quickly and easily disseminated to a large population, which is highly contagious, causes high rates of morbidity and mortality, requires vast resources to combat, and causes mass panic, confusion, or social disruption. Chemical agents can be delivered in various forms—vapors, aerosols, liquids and solids—and by a wide variety of methods, including sprays and bombs. In the light of the anthrax incident in 2001 and the use of chemicals in Iraq against Kurds, the paper tries to bring out the transition of the anti-humane weapons from concrete metal objects to undetectable disastrous liquid or gaseous compounds. This paper tries to unravel the heinous consequences the various chemical agents like nerve agents, blistering agents, hydrogen cyanide etc. have. The Biological Weapons Convention prohibits each state party to develop, produce, stockpile or otherwise acquire or retain any microbial agents. The convention however does not provide mechanism for monitoring the activities. The intricacy involved to defeat the bio weapons is that they are either unknown or unpublished as to how many terror organizations have the capability to procure, manufacture, or effectively deploy these agents. Finally the paper concludes with ways to deal with such problems along with the concrete solutions.