If you are a history buff, you might remember the use of bioweapons during WWI and WWII and their subsequent bans. It was not limited to WWII but was carried on even after the war was long over. But what is a bioweapon and is it legal? Let's find out.
Bio Weapon contains disease-producing agents like viruses, bacteria, fungi, toxins, or other agents that may be used to harm humans, plants or animals. They are also known as germ weapons.
Throughout the second half of the 20th century, the use of Bio Weapon has become a war crime. The treaty for the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) has been signed by a total of 180 states prohibiting the member states from using and producing bioweapons.
Biological weapons differ depending upon the agent (organism or toxin), incubation period, lethality, infectiousness and treatments available. Some of these properties make one bioweapon preferable over the other.
Bio-Weapons
The agents that have been most used to create such a weapon of mass destruction include ricin, botulinum, T-2 among others. Organisms that have been or can be used to create a bioweapon include plague, anthrax, cholera, smallpox, viral hemorrhagic fever and a lot more.
The most common source of launching a bioweapon is via air i.e. spreading it in aerosol form. To get protection against such a weapon, wearing masks, using protective kits can prevent contamination. Vaccination against such disease-causing agents, using bioweapon sensors and other protective measures can help in making it ineffective.
Bioweapons are still used on smaller scales, especially by terrorist organisations and several other countries that do it behind closed doors. Information to create a bioweapon is at everyone's disposal via the Internet. It creates a sense of fear if such havoc is unleashed on a global scale.
At the same time, scientists all around the globe are working to improve our detection of biological weapons and protect the human species against any attack of mass destruction using biological organisms/agents.
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