Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

India’s Preparedness against Bioterrorism:Biodefence Strategies and Policy Measures


Affiliations
1 Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala 147 002, India
2 Department of Biotechnology, Punjabi University, Patiala 147 002, India
 

Bioterrorism is a realistic threat to the security and well-being of all countries. Significant legal and biodefence measures must be taken to prevent the production and use of deadly biological weapons. Previous bioterror incidences, dense population and congenial climatic conditions of India, make it vulnerable to bioterrorism threats. This review provides a comprehensive picture of the potential biothreats to the country, the existing laws and policies to counteract such incidences with a strong need for their implementation, and biodefence strategies for preparedness and protection, to make India a bioterror free nation.

Keywords

Bioterrorism, Biodefence Strategies, Policy Measures.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Henderson, D. A., Bioterrorism as a public health threat. Emerg. Infect. Dis., 1998, 4, 488–492.
  • Salerno, R. and Hickok, L., Strengthening bioterrorism prevention: global biological materials management. Biosecur. Bioterror., 2002, 5, 107–116.
  • Fong, I. and Alibek, K., Bioterrorism and Infectious Agents, Springer, New York, 2010.
  • Kortepeter, M. G. and Parker, G. W., Potential biological weapons threats. Emerg. Infect. Dis., 2000, 5, 523–527.
  • Madad, S. S., Bioterrorism: an emerging global health threat. J. Bioterror. Biodef., 2014, 5(1), 129 (1–6).
  • Dworkin, M. S., Ma, X. and Golash, R. G., Fear of bioterrorism and implications for public health preparedness. Emerg. Infect. Dis., 2003, 9, 503–505.
  • Barras, V. and Greub, G., History of biological warfare and bioterrorism. Clin. Microbiol. Infect., 2014, 20(6), 497–502.
  • Riedel, S., Biological warfare and bioterrorism: a historical review. In Proceedings Baylor University Medical Center, 2004, vol. 17, pp. 400–406.
  • Wheelis, M., Biological warfare at the 1346 siege of Caffa. Emerg. Infect. Dis., 2002, 8, 971–975.
  • Norris, J., East or west? The geographic origin of the black death. Bull. Hist. Med., 1977, 51, 1–24.
  • Christopher, G. W., Cieslak, T. J., Pavlin, J. A. and Eitzen, E. M., Biological warfare: historical perspective. JAMA, 1977, 278, 412–417.
  • Henderson, D. A. et al., Smallpox as a biological weapon: medical and public health management: working group on civilian biodefense. JAMA, 1999, 281, 2127–2137.
  • Eitzen and Takafuji., Historical overview of biological warfare. In Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare (eds Sidell, Takafuji and Franz), Borden Institute, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC, 2004, pp. 415–423.
  • Harris, S. H., Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932–1945 and the American Cover-Up, Routledge, New York, 1994, p. 385.
  • Poupard, J. A. and Miller, L. A., History of biological warfare: catapults to capsomeres. Ann. NY Acad. Sci., 1992, 666, 9–20.
  • Meselson, M., Guillemin, J., Hugh-Jones, M., Langmuir, A., Popova, I., Shelokov, A. and Yampolskaya, O., The Sverdlovsk anthrax outbreak of 1979. Science, 1994, 266, 1202–1208.
  • Zilinskas, R. A., Iraq‘s biological weapons. The past as future?. JAMA, 1977, 278, 418–424.
  • Sinha, B. K., Biological Warfare, Surindra Publications, New Delhi, 2010.
  • Rogers, P., Whitby, S. and Dando, M., Biological warfare against crops. Sci. Am., 1999, 280, 70–75.
  • Horn, J. K., Bacterial agents used for bioterrorism, Surg. Infect. (Larchmt), 2003, 4(3), 281–287.
  • Spencer, J. and Scardiville, M., Understanding the Bioterrorist Threat: Facts and Figures, The Heritage Foundation, Washington, DC, 2001.
  • Bhardwaj, P., Srivastava, J. and Karan, J., Bioterrorism: an imminent public health threat. Int. J. Epidemiol., 2009, 7(1), 7.
  • Suter, K., The troubled history of chemical and biological warfare. Contemp. Rev., 2003, 28, 161–165.
  • Sapsford, K., Bradburne, C., Delehanty, J. and Medintz., Sensors for detecting biological agents. Mater. Today, 2008, 11, 38–49.
  • Das, S. and Kataria, V. K., Bioterrorism: a public health perspective. MJAFI, 2010, 66(3), 255–260.
  • Geiger, Protecting civil liberties. In Terrorism and Public Health (eds Levy and Sidel), Oxford University Press, UK, 2003, pp. 322–334.
  • Enserink, M. and Malakoff, D., Congress weighs select agent update. Science, 2001, 294, 1438.
  • Wallerstein, M. B., Science in an age of terrorism. Science, 2002, 297, 2169.
  • Hoffman, R. E., Preparing for a bioterrorist attack: legal and administrative strategies. Emerg. Infect. Dis., 2003, 9, 241–245.
  • Bhattacharjee, Y., Scientist pleads guilty of receiving illegally imported avian flu virus. Science, 2004, 305, 1886.
  • Mestel, R., Scientists experiment with caution. Los Angeles Times, 2002.
  • Malakoff, D. and Drennan, K., Butler gets 2 years for mishandling plague samples. Science, 2004, 303, 1743–1745.
  • Pickrell, J., Imperial college fined over hybrid virus risk. Science, 2001, 293, 779–780.
  • Bhui, K. J., Dinos, S. and James, E., Psychological process and pathways to radicalization. J. Bioterror. Biodef., 2012, 5, 1–5.
  • Pesik, N., Keim, M. E. and Iverson, K. V., Terrorism and the ethics of emergency medical care. Ann. Emerg. Med., 2001, 37, 642–646.
  • Bhargava, R., Challenges in bio-defense for India – a plausible approach. OIIRJ, 2014, 4(3), 182–191.
  • National Disaster Management Guidelines – Management of Biological Disasters, 2008. A publication of National Disaster Management Authority, Government of India, New Delhi, July 2008, ISBN978-81-906483-6-3.
  • Kumar, A., Verma, A., Yadav, M., Sabri, I. and Asthana, A., Biological warfare, bioterrorism and biodefence. J. Indian Acad. Forensic Med., 2011, 33(1), 69–73.
  • Milanovich, F., Reducing the threat of biological weapons. Sci. Technol. Rev., 1998, 6, 4–9.
  • Plianbangchong, S., Strategies of preparedness against the threat of biological warfare and bioterrorism in South-East Asia. Asian Biotech. Dev. Rev., 2005, 8, 77–98.
  • Rose, L. J., Rice, E. N., Jenson, B., Muoga, R., Peterson, A., Darkan, R. M. and Ardenno, M. J., Chlorine inactivation of bacterial bioterrorism agents. App. Environ. Microbiol., 2005, 71, 566–568.
  • Syal, S., Bioterrorism: time to wake up. Curr. Sci., 2008, 95(12), 1665–1666.
  • Hupert, N., Mushlin, A. I. and Callahan, M. A., Modeling the public health response tobioterrorism: using discrete event simulation to design antibiotic distribution centers. Med. Decis. Making, 2002, 22, 1–9.

Abstract Views: 457

PDF Views: 125




  • India’s Preparedness against Bioterrorism:Biodefence Strategies and Policy Measures

Abstract Views: 457  |  PDF Views: 125

Authors

Kewal Krishan
Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala 147 002, India
Baljinder Kaur
Department of Biotechnology, Punjabi University, Patiala 147 002, India
Anshula Sharma
Department of Biotechnology, Punjabi University, Patiala 147 002, India

Abstract


Bioterrorism is a realistic threat to the security and well-being of all countries. Significant legal and biodefence measures must be taken to prevent the production and use of deadly biological weapons. Previous bioterror incidences, dense population and congenial climatic conditions of India, make it vulnerable to bioterrorism threats. This review provides a comprehensive picture of the potential biothreats to the country, the existing laws and policies to counteract such incidences with a strong need for their implementation, and biodefence strategies for preparedness and protection, to make India a bioterror free nation.

Keywords


Bioterrorism, Biodefence Strategies, Policy Measures.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv113%2Fi09%2F1675-1682