Biological Attacks - Assignment Example

Biological Attacks Task 1 Historically, war outbreaks as well as terrorism attacks that involved microbial species against humans killed more people than the war itself. For instance, small pox, measles, and typhoid killed 95% of the pre-Columbian population. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention classifies them into three classes. Class A composes of all the pathogens that are rare in US. The probability of occurrence is quite low. They do pose the greatest risk to the populations since they are easily transmitted, come along with high mortality rates, and demands special approaches and plans as a part of disaster preparedness protocol. They include anthrax, plague, or smallpox. Category B is less risky to the population and leads to less mortality rates. Examples include brucellosis and staphylococcus. Lastly, C receives the least priority attention in response, as they are less prone to dissemination. They may include Nipah virus and Hantavirus (Hugas et al., 134). Task 2 The National Planning Framework is very essential in disaster management process and terrorism approaches. There are several principles outlined in the framework, with the areas of coordination policies, prevention, mitigation, response, and recovery plans of any disasters. Together with the National Incident Management System, they does aid in response of any disaster or terrorism acts through the outlined policies. Task 3 The RAIN concept of addressing a biological attack consists of four steps. The first step is the recognition of the hazard. In this step, the nature of the biological attack is recognized. The second step is the avoiding the hazard or contamination. This reduces the spread of the biological attack to the rest of the population and to the personnel’s addressing the attacks. The third step involves the isolation of the affected; this may involve the relocation of the immediate society to safeguard them from infection. After the isolation of the population in the infected region, the appropriate support is called upon to help in managing the agents (Kirkup). The RAIN concept for addressing a biological attack in the United States has mandate to offer to train the first responders in 120 most populated cities. Keeping in mind that terrorists often attack regions that are highly populated, training the first responders from these cities can minimize the impact of the attack significantly. According to the 1998 PL 105-119 Appropriations Act, the local public safety officials are always the first top respond to such attacks and the federal government should offer support by providing preparations, training, as well as equipment (Enemark, 920). The united states general should assist the local as well as state first responders in getting specialized equipments as well as training in order to safeguard such events. Moreover, the concept promotes community emergency programs that are supposed to help in responding to biological attacks in case the attack is intense. In such a case, the members of the immediate community can be called upon to help. Task 4 After a biological attack, people who are suspected to be infected by a particular disease may be restricted to move from one area to another. The United States restricts the movement of people by the use of the isolation and quarantine restrictions. Isolation is the separation and restriction of people or any organism that can participate in the spread of disease from the region where people are infected to the other parts of the country. Quarantine is the restriction of movement of people suspected to be infected from other parts of the country. Biological system weapons have four major components including payload monition, dispersion system and the delivery system. The payload is the biological system that carries the agents. The munitions safe guards as well as carries the payload in order to maintain its portability during the process. The system of delivery can be either a missile, boat, and vehicle or any artillery shell. However, the dispersion system for most of the biological attacks happens in secrecy. Methods that are used in the dispersion of the agents include explosives, food sprays or water contamination. Biological weapons are preferred by terrorists due to their characteristics. For instance, the uses of aerosols that contain biological agents are silent, invisible, tasteless, odorless, as well as relatively easily dispersed. Moreover, they are very cheap compared to other weapons that can be used in mass destruction. It is estimated than other cost of a biological weapon is 0.05% the other weapons that can have a similar effect to people (Dudley and Woodford, 130). Task 5 The detection of biological attacks may be difficult than the convectional terrorist attacks. This is due to specific reasons that may make it difficult for the responders to discover that it is a biological attack. One of the reasons is the incubation period that has no visible symptoms. Biological attacks that may involve diseases with long incubation periods such as anthrax which as an incubation period of up to 7 days may be very difficult to solve. Long incubation periods with no visible symptoms increases the spread of diseases to the entire population. Moreover, some of these biological attacks may involve disuses that have non-specific symptoms hence making it very difficult for the population to identify the infected people. Biological system weapons have four major components; payload monition, dispersion system and the delivery system. The payload is the biological system that carries the agents. The munitions safeguards as well as carries the payload in order to maintain its portability during the process. The system of delivery can be either a missile, boat, and vehicle or any artillery shell. However, the dispersion system for most of the biological attacks happens in secrecy. Methods that are used in the dispersion of the agents include explosives, food sprays or water contamination. Task 6 The use of the tier diagnostic will aid in the countering as well as protection of the public at the time of attack of biological attacks and in the future. The utilization of the diagnostic methods reduces the spread of the harmful biological agents to the victims, rescue teams and the rest of the society. This is spread of the agents in the biological attack is minimized by the isolating the infected individuals from the rest of the society. This includes the use of isolation and quarantine. Both measures restrict the movement of people in order to minimize the spread of the agents. Works cited Dudley, J P, and M H Woodford. “Bioweapons, Bioterrorism and Biodiversity: Potential Impacts of Biological Weapons Attacks on Agricultural and Biological Diversity.” Revue scientifique et technique (International Office of Epizootics) 21 (2002): 125–137. Print. Enemark, Christian. “Biological Attacks and the Non-State Actor: A Threat Assessment.” Intelligence and National Security 2006: 911–930. Web. Hugas, Marta et al. “Risk Assessment of Biological Hazards in the European Union.” International Journal of Food Microbiology 120 (2007): 131–135. Web. Kirkup, James. “Biological Attacks ‘Getting Easier for Terrorists.’” Telegraph.co.uk 2013: n. pag. Print.  Read More