This document defines biological disasters as scenarios involving large-scale disease, disability, or death among humans, animals, and plants caused by live organisms or their toxins. It discusses biological agents that could cause mass destruction, including anthrax, plague, and smallpox. The document categorizes biological agents based on their potential impact and ability to spread. It also covers epidemics, bioterrorism, historical events involving biological weapons, and the impact and prevention of biological disasters. Prevention methods include immunization, hygiene, surveillance, and protecting from weather extremes.

1. BIOLOGICAL DISASTER
GUIDED BY : Prof. NIRALI PADHIYAR
PREPARED BY : JIGAR DESAI (IU1641040020)
AKSHAY PATEL (IU1641040021)
YASH PATEL ( IU1641040022)
KAUSHAL PATEL(IU1641040024)
RAHUL PATEL ( IU1641040025)
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2. CONTENTS
 Definition
 Biological Agents as Causes of Mass Destruction
 Sources of Biological Agents
 Types of Biological Agents
 Epidemics
 Bioterrorism
 History : Major events across the globe
 Impact of Biological Disaster
 Prevention of Biological Disaster
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3. What is Biological Disaster ?
 Biological disasters are scenarios involving disease, disability or death on a large scale
among humans, animals and plants due to toxins or disease caused by live organisms or
their products.
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4. Biological Agents as Causes of Mass Destruction
 The potential of some infectious agents is nearly as great as that of nuclear weapons and,
are therefore, included in the triad of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD): Nuclear,
Biological and Chemical (NBC).
 The low cost and widespread availability of dual technology (of low sophistication) makes
BW(Biological Warfare) attractive to even less developed countries.
 The agents used in BW are largely natural pathogens and the illnesses caused by them
simulate existing diseases.
 The diagnosis and treatment of BW victims should be carried out by the medical care
system rather than by any specialised agency.
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5. Sources of Biological Agents
 Any human, animal or plant pathogen can cause an epidemic or be used as a biological
weapon. The deliberate intention/action to cause harm defines a biological attack.
 Certain characteristics need to be present for an organism to be used as a potential
biological agent for warfare or terrorist attack.
Ex. Anthrax, smallpox, plague, tularemia, brucellosis and botulinism toxin can be
considered as leaders in the field.
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6. Types of Biological Agents
 There are three categories of biological agents potential enough to cause mass casualties (
Center for Disease Control and Prevention).
1. Category A
2. Category B
3. Category C
 Those in category A have the greatest potential for fear and disruption and most significant
public health impacts.
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7. CATEGORY -A
 Easily disseminated or transmitted person to person
 Highly mortality
 Require special action for public health preparedness
 Viruses : Variola major (smallpox) , filo viruses (Ebola, Marburg), Arenaviruses (Lassa,
Junin)
 Bacteria : Bacillus anthracis (anthrax) , Yersinia pestis (plague) , Francisella tularensis (
tularemia)
 Toxins : Clostridium botulinium toxin ( botulism)
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8. CATEGORY-B
 Moderately easy to disseminate
 Moderate morbidity and low mortality
 Require improved diagnostic capacity and enhanced surveillance
 Viruses : Alphaviruses
 Bacteria : Coxiella burnetii ( Q-fever) , Brucella spp. ( brucellosis) , Burkholderia mallei (
glanders)
 Toxins : Rinus communis (caster beans) ricin toxin , Clostridium perfringens episolon
toxin , Staphylococcus enterotoxin B
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9. CATEGORY-C
 Viruses : Nipah, hantaviruses , tick borne hemorrhagic fever viruses , tick borne
encephalitis viruses , yellow fever
 Bacteria : Multi – drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis
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10. Epidemics
 An epidemic is the rapid spread of infectious disease to a large number of people in a given
population within a short period of time, usually two weeks or less.
 For example, in meningococcal infections, an attack rate in excess of 15 cases per 100,000
people for two consecutive weeks is considered an epidemic.
 A few cases of a very rare disease may be classified as an epidemic, while many cases of a
common disease (such as the common cold) would not.
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11. Transmission of Epidemics:
 Airborne transmission: Airborne transmission is the spread of infection by droplet nuclei
or dust in the air. Without the intervention of winds or drafts the distance over which
airborne infection takes place is short, say 10 to 20 feet.
 Arthropod transmission: Arthropod transmission takes place by an insect, either
mechanically through a contaminated proboscis or feet, or biologically when there is
growth or replication of an organism in the arthropod.
 Biological transmission: Involving a biological process, e.g. passing a stage of
development of the infecting agent in an intermediate host. Opposite to mechanical
transmission.
 Contact transmission: The disease agent is transferred directly by biting , chewing or
indirectly by inhalation of droplets, drinking of contaminated water, traveling in
contaminated vehicles.
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12. Bioterrorism
 Bioterrorism is the deliberate release of viruses, bacteria, toxins or other harmful agents to
cause illness or death in people, animals, or plants .
 Biological agents are attractive to terrorists because they are extremely difficult to detect
and do not cause illness for several hours to several days.
 Some bioterrorism agents, like the smallpox virus, can be spread from person to person and
some, like anthrax, cannot.
 Bioterrorism may be favored because biological agents are relatively easy and inexpensive
to obtain, can be easily disseminated, and can cause widespread fear and panic beyond the
actual physical damage.
 A biological weapon is useful to terrorists mainly as a method of creating mass panic and
disruption to a state or a country.
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13. History : Major events across the globe
 Modern times: Biological warfare reached sophistication during the 1900s.
Case -1 : During World War I, the German Army developed anthrax, glanders, cholera, and a
wheat fungus specifically for use as biological weapons. They allegedly spread plague in St.
Petersburg, Russia, infected mules with glanders in Mesopotamia, and attempted to do the
same with the horses of the French Cavalry.
Case-2 :During World War II, Japanese forces operated a secret biological warfare research
facility (Unit 731) in Manchuria that carried out human experiments on prisoners. They
exposed more than 3,000 victims to plague, anthrax, syphilis and other agents in an attempt to
develop and observe the disease. Some victims were executed or died from their infections.
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14. Case -3 : In 1942, the United States formed the War Research Service. Anthrax and botulinum
toxin initially were investigated for use as weapons. Sufficient quantities of botulinum toxin
and anthrax were stockpiled by June 1944 to allow unlimited retaliation if the German forces
first used biological agents. The British also tested anthrax bombs on Gruinard Island off the
northwest coast of Scotland in 1942 and 1943 and then prepared and stockpiled anthrax-laced
cattle cakes for the same reason.
Case -4 : In 1979, an accidental release of anthrax from a weapons facility in Sverdlovsk,
USSR, killed at least 66 people. The Russian government claimed these deaths were due to
infected meat and maintained this position until 1992, when Russian President Boris Yeltsin
finally admitted to the accident.
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15. Impact of Biological Disaster
 Dispersal experiments have been attempted using non-pathogenic Bacillus globigii, which
has physical characteristics similar to Bacillus anthracis. The dispersal experiments showed
that an attack on the New York subway system would kill at least 10,000 people. World
Health Organisation (WHO) studies show that a 50 kg dispersal on a population of 500,000
would result in up to 95,000 fatalities and over 125,000 people being incapacitated.
 In the case of smallpox, the emergence of secondary cases at the rate of 10 times the number
of primarily infected subjects, would add to the burden. There would also be a demand for
largescale vaccination from meagre stocks and no ongoing production.
 A BT attack on agriculture can cause as much economic loss as an attack on human beings.
The spread of the Parthenium hysterophorus weed, which entered India in the late 1950s
along with imported wheat, affected the yield of fodder crops and became a crop pest.
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16. Prevention of Biological Disaster
 Personal cleanliness - daily bath, don’t grow long nails and wear clean clothes.
 Eat nutritious and balanced food.
 Immunisation state should be upto date.
 Prevent overcrowding.
 Good ventilation.
 Protect from hot and cold weather.
 Health Education.
 Surveillance.
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17. Bibliography
 http://nhp.gov.in/biological-disasters_pg
 https://definitions.uslegal.com/b/biological-disaster/.com
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309201978_BIOLOGICAL_DISASTER_PREVE
NTION_AND_RESCUE.com
 http://vikaspedia.in/social-welfare/disaster-management-1/man-made-disasters/biological-
disaster.com
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