PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISMS AND BIOTOXINS AS BIOLOGICAL COMBAT AGENTS FOR TERRORIST AIMS
PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISMS AND BIOTOXINS AS BIOLOGICAL COMBAT AGENTS FOR TERRORIST AIMS

Summary/Abstract: Today's world is facing a great evil that comes from man, from people who for various reasons entered into a fight against the rest of humanity. That evil is terrorism. It represents an organized and systematic application of violence to cause a feeling of fear and personal insecurity among other people, i.e. among citizens, to cause disorganization in the functioning of the state apparatus and to violate the authority of the state in order to achieve certain political goals. At the root of terrorism is terror. It represents a set of gross and frightening violent actions that cause a feeling of fear and insecurity in people. The most frequently applied procedures for the implementation of terror are murders, abductions of persons, diversions against public facilities - shopping centers, school facilities, roads, bridges, telecommunications devices, water installations, means of transport, military facilities and installations. To achieve their dark goals, terrorists use diversions against objects that contain hidden forces - hydroaccumulation dams, chemical factories, oil wells and nuclear power plants. Intelligence data and some developments in recent times say that they are ready for terrorist actions by polluting and infecting water sources, food, clothing, etc., polluting the human environment, causing epidemics of infectious diseases, etc. Biological warfare agents are used to cause epidemics of infectious diseases in peace and in war. They represent pathogenic microorganisms or toxins specially prepared to cause infectious diseases or intoxication of people, animals or plants for the purpose of their destruction or incapacitation in order to reduce the defensive, i.e. military efficiency of the enemy's forces and thereby create conditions for the realization of the immediate military or political objective of the party using those means. The paper provides brief reviews of pathogenic microorganisms that can be used as biological warfare agents: bacteria, viruses and rickettsiae. A special review is given to biotoxins, especially the botulinum biotoxin, which is the most dangerous and also the most suitable for use as a biological warfare agent. Due to the limited number of pages, the paper presents the basic microbiological characteristics of pathogenic microorganisms from the point of view of their possible use as biological warfare agents.

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