Bioterrorism: An analysis of biological agents used in terrorist events.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The Covid19 pandemic has reignited debates and discussions around healthcare systems' biosecurity vulnerabilities and cast a spotlight on the potential weaponization of biological agents. Terrorist and violent extremist groups have already attempted to incite the intentional spread of Covid19 and to use it as an improvised form of a biological weapon. This study aims to provide an epidemiological description of all terrorism-related attacks using biological agents sustained between 1970 and 2019.

Methods

Data collection was performed using a retrospective database search through the Global Terrorism Database (GTD). The GTD was searched using the internal database search functions for all events using biological weapons between January 1, 1970 - December 31, 2019.<

SUBMITTER: Tin D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8818129 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature