The document discusses biological disasters, including their causes, types of biological agents that can cause mass destruction, and prevention and mitigation strategies. It describes how biological disasters can be naturally occurring or deliberate acts. Three categories of biological agents are defined based on their ability to cause disease and disrupt society. Specific diseases like anthrax, smallpox, plague, tularemia, Ebola, and botulism are explained in terms of their symptoms, transmission, and historical impacts. The document concludes with recommendations for preventing and mitigating biological disasters through public education, disease surveillance, vaccination programs, and developing new vaccines.

2. BIOLOGICAL DISASTERS PREVENTION AND
MITIGATION
BY
MENAKA KANNAIYAN
TAM-14-012

3. BIOLOGICAL DISASTERS
• A biological disaster may have a considerable impact in terms
of human life, disability, quarantine, treatment costs and
disposal of deceased persons in addition to long term
environmental and economic consequences.
• It is important to recognise that biological disasters may be
naturally occurring events (e.g. an influenza pandemic) or a
deliberate event (biological terrorism).

4. • Biological disasters of natural origin are largely the result of the
entry of a virulent organism into a congregation of susceptible
people living in a manner suited to the spread of the infection.
• Anthrax- spore dispersal in the air.
• Small pox-aerosols.
• Typhus and plague-lice, fleas, rodents etc.
• Epidemic spreads locally and dies down if the contagion is
localized.
• Diseases have spread widely, even across national boundaries

5. • Disasters occurred-environmental factors conducive
• Black death occurred- increase in number of rats.
• Cholera attained a pandemic form-causative agent entered
urban areas which had inadequate sanitation facilities

6. BIOLOGICAL AGENTS AS CAUSES OF
MASS DESTRUCTION
• Highly virulent agents have the potential of infecting large
numbers- infectious chains.
• The potential of some infectious agents is nearly as great as that
of nuclear weapons.
• Weapon of mass destruction(WMD): Nuclear ,Biological and
Chemical.

7. TRENDS FAVOURING BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS
• Low cost and wide spread availability .
• More efficient in terms of coverage/ kg of payload.
• Advances in biotechnology have made production easy.
• Agents are largely natural pathogens and simulate existing
diseases.
• Have an unmatched destructive potential.

8. • Technology for dispersing biological agents- sophisticated.
• The lag time between infection and appearance of symptoms is
longer than with chemical exposures.
• Lethal biological agents can be produced easily and cheaply.

9. SOURCES OF BIOLOGICAL AGENTS:
• Any human, animal or plant pathogen can cause a epidemic or
biological weapon.
• The deliberate intention or action to cause harm or biological
attack.
• Incident in USA where members of a religious cult caused
gastroenteritis by the use of Salmonella typhimurium (common
natural pathogen).

10. METHODS OF DESSIMINATION OR DELIVERY
• Aerosols-biological agents are dispersed into the air forming a fine
mist that may drift for miles.
• Animals-fleas, mice, flies , mosquitoes and livestock.
• Food and water contamination-some pathogenic organisms and
toxins may persist in food and water supplies.
• Person to person-Small pox , Plague and the Lassa viruses.

11. TYPES OF BIOLOGICAL AGENTS
• There are 3 categories of biological agents potential enough to
cause mass casualties( centre for disease control and prevention)
• Category A, B and C.
• Those in category A have greatest potential for fear and disruption
and most significant public health impacts.

12. CATEGORY A:
 Easily disseminated or transmitted from person to person.
 High mortality.
 Requires special action for public health preparedness.
 Viruses: Variola major(small pox), Filo viruses(Ebola, Marburg),
Arena viruses(Lassa, Junin).
 Bacteria: Bacillus anthracis(anthrax), Yersinia pestis(plague),
Francicella tularensis(tularemia).
 Toxins : Clostridium botulinum toxin(botulism)

13. CATEGORY B:
 Moderately easy to disseminate.
 Moderate to low mortality.
 Require improved diagnostic capacity and enhanced surveillance.
 Viruses: Alpha viruses
 Bacteria: Coxiella burnetti (Q fever), Brucella species
(brucellosis).
 Toxins: Ricinus communis( caster beans) ricin toxin,
staphylococcus entero toxin B.
 Food and water borne pathogens: Salmonella spp., Vibrio
cholerae.

14. CATEGORY C:
• Viruses: Nipah, hanta viruses, tick borne hemorrhagic fever
viruses, tick borne encephalitis viruses, yellow fever.
• Bacteria: Multi drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

15. ANTHRAX DISEASE
• The disease anthrax is caused by non motile, gram positive
Bacillus anthracis.
• It has been a scourge of cattle and other herbivores for
centuries.
• During the industrial revolution , the inhalation form was first
recognized as an occupational pulmonary disease in workers in
the wool industries of Europe.
• Anthrax makes an ideal biological weapon.
• The inhalation form of disease is highly lethal.
• The spores can maintain for decades they can be milled into
ideal particle size for optimum infection of human respiratory
tract.

19. SMALL POX DISEASE
• If used as a biological weapon, smallpox represents a serious
threat to civilian population because of its case fatality rate of 30%
or more among unvaccinated persons and the absence of specific
therapy.
• Small pox has long been considered as the most devastating of all
infectious diseases and today its potential for devastation is far
greater than at any previous time

21.  Smallpox virus is a member of genus Orthopox virus, and it is
closely related to the viruses causing cowpox vaccinia and
monkey pox.
 It is one of the largest DNA viruses known and it has a brick like
appearance on electron microscopy.
 Transmission risk increases if the patient is coughing or sneezing
or if he or she has hemorrhagic disease.

22. • Typically, the virus enters the respiratory mucosa and then travels
to regional lymph nodes where it replicates.
• The incubation period from infection to onset of rash ranges from
7 to 17 days. Small pox scabs remain infectious until they fall off,
whereas chicken pox is no longer infectious once the lesions are
crusted.

23. PLAGUE DISEASE
• The mere mention of the world plague conjures up many images
because has already demonstrated a historical potential to kill
millions of people across the globe .
• It is a disease that results from infection by non- motile gram
negative coccobacillus Yersinia pestis.

24.  Following the bite of an infected flea, plague bacilli are carried via
the lymphatic to the regional lymph nodes where they multiply
exponentially.
 This is the only weapon besides smallpox which can cause
devastation beyond those persons who are initially infected.

25. • Botulinum or botulism toxins are deadly.
• A toxin is any toxic substance that can be produced in an animal
plant or microbe.
• The toxins produce serious disease in human beings.
• Many natural toxins can be produced by chemical synthesis or can
be expressed artificially.
• Toxins are natural and non volatile and generally do not penetrate
intact skin, which happens in case of chemical weapons.
BOTULINUM

26. • There are different type of toxins and they are immunologically
distinct, meaning that antibodies developed against one do not
cross react against others.
• Humans can be intoxicated either by oral means , inhalation, or
wound infection.
• The incubation period ranges from as short as 24 to 36 hours to
several days from the time of infection.

27. TULAREMIA
• Tularemia is caused by Francisella tularensis, which is a non-
motile, gram-negative cocco bacillus.
• Tularemia is a zoonotic disease acquired in a natural setting by
humans through skin or mucous membrane contact with the body
fluids or tissues of infected animals or from being bitten by
infected deerflies, mosquitoes or ticks.
• It can remain viable for weeks in environment or in animal
carcasses and for years if frozen.

28. Francisella tularensis

29. • After an incubation period of 2 to 10 days, pneumonia symptoms
develop associated with weight loss and non productive cough.
• The drug of choice for treatment is streptomycin with other
aminoglycosides.

30. EBOLA
• Ebola virus / Zaire ebola virus is one of the four ebola viruses known to
cause disease in humans.
• It has the highest case-fatality rate of these ebolaviruses, averaging 83%
since first described in 1976, although fatality rates up to 90% have been
recorded in one epidemic (2002–03).
• There have also been more outbreaks of Zaire ebola virus than of any other
ebolavirus. The first outbreak occurred on 26 August 1976 in Yambuku.
• The first recorded case was Mabalo Lokela, a 44-year-old schoolteacher.
The symptoms resembled malaria, and subsequent patients
received quinine.
• Transmission has been attributed to reuse of unsterilized needles and close
personal contact, body fluids and places where the person has touched.

31. SYMPTOMS OF EBOLA
• Bleeding from mouth ,nose, ears.
• Increased sensitivity to pain on the skin.
• Genital swelling.
• Conjuctivitis.
• Rashes all over the body.
• Reddening of roof of the mouth.

33. EBOLA INFECTION

34. MAJOR EVENTS ACROSS THE GLOBE
• Biological warfare has a long history of mass destruction-
epidemic and pandemic diseases.
• Mycotoxins have been reported to be used in Afghanisthan.
• The red Indians in North America were given the smallpox
infected blankets.
• In 2001 USA experienced biological attacks involving the
intentional distribution of Bacillus anthracis spores through the
postal system. It created the threat for bioterrorism.

35. • Medical advances reduced the damages from some of
infectious diseases, yet many remain to be conquered.
• Highly pathogenic avian influenza, a disease in birds occurring
repeatedly since ancient times, is now found worldwide.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on
February 15, 2007 that of 273 bird flu victims in 11 countries
in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, 166 have died.

36. • Since bird flu does not spread easily to human beings, the number
of victims is limited.
• The worst historically recorded ones involved Spanish flu, which
started in 1918 during World War I among French and German
soldiers and spread globally, resulting in 20 million to 60 million
deaths.
• Spanish flu - said to have been named after its effects on the
Spanish royal family - is known to have caused the highest number
of deaths of any single infection.

37. DOCUMENTED INTENTIONAL USE OF BIOLOGICALS:
• Dispersal of anthrax spores due to accident in production unit in
USSR caused 68 deaths in 1979.
• In 1984, Osho followers used Salmonella typhimurium in salad in
a restaurent in Oregaon , USA leading to 751 cases.
• Anthrax spores through postal envelopes in USA in Oct-Nov 2001
leading to 22 cases and 5 deaths.

38. PRESENT STATUS AND CONTEXT:
• Plague which has assumed epidemic proportions in the early to
mid 19th and 20th centuries, has nearly been eliminated.
• SARS outbreak in 2003 caught the attention of the world-
spread of a disease from a single hospital case to a global
pandemic in less than 3 months.

39. • Similarly, the outbreak of avian influenza among poultry in
Nandurbar and Jalgaon districts of Maharastra and adjoining
districts of Gujarath and Madhya pradesh (2006) saw the
poultry industry plummet.

40. • The 1918 influenza pandemic killed an estimated 7 million
people in India.
• Slow , evolving epidemics such as HIV/ AIDS- socio –
economic disruption.
• Emerging and re-emerging diseases , notably SARS, avian
influenza, Nipah virus, leptospirosis, dengue, Chickengunya,
and Rickettsial are also posing serious threats.

41. PREVENTION AND MITIGATION MEASURES OF
BIOLOGICAL DISASTERS
• The general population should be educated and made aware of
the threats and risks associated with it.
• Only cooked food and boiled/ chlorinated/ filtered water
should be consumed.
• Insects and rodent control measures must be initiated
immediately.
• Clinical isolation of suspected and confirmed cases is
essential.

42. • Therefore a network of specialized laboratories should be
established for a confirmatory laboratory diagnosis.
• Existing disease surveillance system as well as vector control
measures have to be pursued more rigorously.
• Mass immunization programme in the suspected area has to be
more vigorously followed up.

43. FUTURE PLAN
• Since vaccines against a number of potential biological
warfare agents have already been in use,mass immunization of
the population would be done on a priority basis.
• Vaccines against remaining agents should have to be
reasearched and developed.
• Mass public awareness before, doing and after such an attack
must be emphasized upon.