Since anthrax contamination was discovered in Florida in September 2001, Dr. Freifeld has been speaking to groups around the Omaha about the history of biological warfare. She said it’s important for everyone to know the history and uses of these agents.

“If we get more and more people educated and keep people calmer, there is much less risk of overwhelming the medical system” by people seeking help for possible infection, she said.

History of Biologic Warfare/Terrorism

• 1346 – Tartar Siege of Kaffa
• 1754 – French and Indian War
• World War II – Nations weaponize & test biologics
• 1979 – Sverdlovsk anthrax accident
• Today – Bioagents still a threat

Tartar Siege of Kaffa

One of the earliest uses of “biological warfare” occurred in 1346 in Kaffa, a city on the Black Sea held by the Genovese, said Dr. Freifeld. In an attempt to take back the city, Tartar warriors from western Asia camped outside the city walls and besieged the town.

At this time, 67 percent of the European population was afflicted with plague, Dr. Freifeld noted. And the Tartars were no exception. Soon the disease began to spread through their encampment.

Thinking they could end the siege by passing on the disease, the Tartars began catapulting plague-infected bodies and heads over the city walls, she said.

In 1754, as French and British soldiers battled Native American tribes in the colonies, the British donated blankets to the Indians as a supposed gesture of goodwill.

The blankets, however, had been used by people with smallpox. The infection killed off most of the tribes.

During World War II, “the Japanese had a huge program to weaponize and test biological agents,” said Dr. Freifeld. At one point, they dropped a massive number of plague-infested rat fleas on Manchurian China, and up to 10,000 people died of plague.

The U.S. started its biological weapons program in 1943. Creation of “offensive” weapons was discontinued in 1969; however, research into defensive weapons continues.

More than 140 nations around the world, including the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.,  signed the Biologic Weapons Convention Treaty in 1972, agreeing not to use biological weapons.

That didn’t stop the Soviet Union, however, which continued to expand these weapons in secret. The “biopreparat” program:

• Employed 25,000 people in 8 major facilities at an annual cost of  $1 billion.
• Included efforts to weaponize plague, anthrax, small pox, botulism toxin and other agents.
• Produced 30 tons of anthrax, some of which was genetically altered to be antibiotic resistant.

Sverdlovsk anthrax accident

The Soviets’ secret leaked out, however, in 1979, when weapons-grade anthrax escaped from a lab near Sverdlovsk into the atmosphere. The area affected had a population of about 1.2 million, Dr. Freifeld said.

Humans within three miles of the plant became infected with anthrax up to 40 days after the event, she said. About 70 people became ill, and 65 died within two to four days of becoming ill. Animals within a 30-mile radius of the plant also died, she added.

Dr. Freifeld pointed out that the incident was kept secret for many years, and even today, few facts have been released. Therefore, the numbers of  sick and dead patients varies from account to account.

Bioagents still a threat

In addition to anthrax, tularemia, smallpox and plague rank as some of the most dangerous biological weapons, Dr. Freifeld said.

Tularemia and plague are dangerous potential biological weapons because they’re highly contagious, can be disseminated easily, and have a “substantial capacity to cause illness and death.”

According to a 1970 World Health Organization report, if 50 kg of virulent F. tularensis  was aerosolized over a metropolitan area of population approximately 5 million, there would be 250,000 incapacitating casualties, including 19,000 deaths.

The same report estimated that if 50 kg of Y pestis, which causes plague, was aerosolized over a city of 5 million, the result would be 150,000 cases of pneumonic plague, 80,000 to 100,000 of which would require hospitalization. About 36,000 fatalities would be expected.

Even though smallpox was eradicated by 1977, it’s still a biological weapons threat today, Dr. Freifeld said.

In the 1980s, the World Health Organization recommended that all smallpox virus stocks be destroyed, or transferred to either the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, or the Institute of Virus Preparations in Moscow.

The Soviet government, however did not comply. It embarked on bioweapons program to produce the smallpox virus in large quantities.

By the 1990s, she said, financial support for USSR bioweapons disappeared. It’s possible that the smallpox virus has fallen into wrong hands.

Vaccinations ceased when the disease was eradicated, so most Americans born after 1972 have not been immunized, Dr. Freifeld said. Smallpox vaccine production is low at this time, but plans are under way to increase production.