India and Biological Warfare

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arvindnath
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India and Biological Warfare

Post by arvindnath »

Dear friends, It is understood that India, as part of international agreement, would not use biological warfare in it's defence. But what are the ways for India to find out whether it's enemies are using or going to use biological weapons against it ? Arvind
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by Ardeshir »

IB4TL :mrgreen:
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

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IB4TL :D
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by Ramesh »

IB4TL :((
:((
:(( :lol: :lol:
:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by govardhanks »

Here read this
https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/gen ... chap6.html

It might give you idea about some possible scenario's India might face. Preferably go through weaponization, possible biological agents, mobility problems faced and neutralization/destruction of weapons.

Once you read completely, start yourself in Newbie corner, read some old posts.
Till then

IB4TL :D
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by deejay »

IB4TL :D
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by Philip »

The latest monster.The "Satan bug".New genetically modified flu virus created by US Japanese scientist which leaves humans defenceless.

Exclusive: Controversial US scientist creates deadly new flu strain for pandemic research
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 77088.html

Scientists express horror over the creation of a virus that could render the human immune system defenceless

Steve Connor
Tuesday 01 July 2014

A controversial scientist who carried out provocative research on making influenza viruses more infectious has completed his most dangerous experiment to date by deliberately creating a pandemic strain of flu that can evade the human immune system.

Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has genetically manipulated the 2009 strain of pandemic flu in order for it to “escape” the control of the immune system’s neutralising antibodies, effectively making the human population defenceless against its reemergence.


Most of the world today has developed some level of immunity to the 2009 pandemic flu virus, which means that it can now be treated as less dangerous “seasonal flu”. However, The Independent understands that Professor Kawaoka intentionally set out to see if it was possible to convert it to a pre-pandemic state in order to analyse the genetic changes involved.

The study is not published, however some scientists who are aware of it are horrified that Dr Kawaoka was allowed to deliberately remove the only defence against a strain of flu virus that has already demonstrated its ability to create a deadly pandemic that killed as many as 500,000 people in the first year of its emergence.

Professor Kawaoka has so far kept details of the research out of the public domain but admitted today that the work is complete and ready for submission to a scientific journal. The experiment was designed to monitor the changes to the 2009 H1N1 strain of virus that would enable it to escape immune protection in order to improve the design of vaccines, he said.

“Through selection of immune escape viruses in the laboratory under appropriate containment conditions, we were able to identify the key regions [that] would enable 2009 H1N1 viruses to escape immunity,” Professor Kawaoka said in an email.

“Viruses in clinical isolates have been identified that have these same changes in the [viral protein]. This shows that escape viruses emerge in nature and laboratory studies like ours have relevance to what occurs in nature,” he said.

Prior to his statement to The Independent, Professor Kawaoka’s only known public mention of the study was at a closed scientific meeting earlier this year. He declined to release any printed details of his talk or his lecture slides.

Yoshihiro Kawaoka's study has yet to be published Yoshihiro Kawaoka's study has yet to be published
Some members of the audience, however, were shocked and astonished at his latest and most audacious work on flu viruses, which follow on from his attempts to re-create the 1918 flu virus and an earlier project to increase the transmissibility of a highly lethal strain of bird flu.

“He took the 2009 pandemic flu virus and selected out strains that were not neutralised by human antibodies. He repeated this several times until he got a real humdinger of a virus,” said one scientist who was present at Professor Kawaoka’s talk.

“He left no doubt in my mind that he had achieved it. He used a flu virus that is known to infect humans and then manipulated it in such a way that it would effectively leave the global population defenceless if it ever escaped from his laboratory,” he said.

“He’s basically got a known pandemic strain that is now resistant to vaccination. Everything he did before was dangerous but this is even madder. This is the virus,” he added.

The work was carried out at Wisconsin University’s $12m (£7.5m) Institute for Influenza Virus Research in Madison which was built specifically to house Professor Kawaoka’s laboratory, which has a level-3-agriculture category of biosafety: one below the top safety level for the most dangerous pathogens, such as Ebola virus.

However, this study was done at the lower level-2 biosafety. The university has said repeatedly that there is little or no risk of an accidental escape from the lab, although a similar US Government lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta with a higher level-3 biosafety rating was recently criticised over the accidental exposure of at least 75 lab workers to possible anthrax infection.

Professor Kawaoka’s work had been cleared by Wisconsin’s Institutional Biosafety Committee, but some members of the committee were not informed about details of the antibody study on pandemic H1N1, which began in 2009, and have voiced concerns about the direction, oversight and safety of his overall research on flu viruses.

“I have met Professor Kawaoka in committee and have heard his research presentations and honestly it was not re-assuring,” said Professor Tom Jeffries, a dissenting member of the 17-person biosafety committee who said he was not made aware of Kawaoka’s work on pandemic H1N1, and has reservations about his other work on flu viruses.

“What was present in the research protocols was a very brief outline or abstract of what he was actually doing…there were elements to it that bothered me,” Professor Jeffries said.

Precautions being carried out during the 2009 outbreak, in Mexico City (Getty) Precautions being carried out during the 2009 outbreak, in Mexico City (Getty)
“I’m a distinct minority on this committee in raising objections. I’m very uneasy when the work involves increasing transmissibility of what we know already to be very virulent strains,” he said.

Asked what he thought about the unpublished study involving the creation of a pandemic strain of flu deliberately designed to escape the control of the human immune system, Professor Jeffries said: “That would be a problem.”

Rebecca Moritz, who is responsible for overseeing Wisconsin’s work on “select agents” such as influenza virus, said that Professor Kawaoka’s work on 2009 H1N1 is looking at the changes to the virus that are needed for existing vaccines to become ineffective.

“With that being said, this work is not to create a new strain of influenza with pandemic potential, but [to] model the immune-pressure the virus is currently facing in our bodies to escape our defences,” Ms Moritz said.

“The work is designed to identify potential circulating strains to guide the process of selecting strains used for the next vaccine…The committee found the biosafety containment procedures to be appropriate for conducting this research. I have no concerns about the biosafety of these experiments,” she said.

Professor Kawaoka said that he has presented preliminary findings of his H1N1 study to the WHO, which were “well received”.

“We are confident our study will contribute to the field, particularly given the number of mutant viruses we generated and the sophisticated analysis applied,” he said.

“There are risks in all research. However, there are ways to mitigate the risks. As for all the research on influenza viruses in my laboratory, this work is performed by experienced researchers under appropriate containment and with full review and prior approval by the [biosafety committee],” he added.
Pandemic flu questions and answers

Why is this experiment different from what has been done before?

This is the first time that someone has taken a strain of influenza virus, called H1N1, known to have caused a global epidemic, in other words a “pandemic”, and deliberately mutated it many times over. It can then evade the neutralising antibodies of the human immune system, which have protected much of the human population since the virus first emerged in 2009.

What has been done previously in this laboratory?

Professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison attempted to increase the transmissibility of the H5N1 bird flu strain by genetic manipulation and repeated infection in laboratory ferrets, an animal model of human influenza. H5N1 is highly lethal when it infects people, but in the wild it is very difficult to transmit from one person to another and is usually caught by direct contact with infected poultry.

The H1N1 flu virus from 2009 The H1N1 flu virus from 2009
Professor Kawaoka’s most recent published research was on reconstructing the 1918 flu virus, the genetic structure which was known from samples retrieved from the frozen corpses of its victims buried in the Arctic, from wild strains of bird flu isolated from ducks. He managed to do this, but the study was widely criticised as “stupid” and “irresponsible”.

Why does he want to do this work?

The aim is to understand what is known as “gain of function”. What does it take, genetically, for a virus to become more infectious or more lethal? If we could understand this process then we would be in a better position to develop drugs, vaccines and other measures to protect ourselves from a sudden emergence of a new and deadly flu strain, or so Professor Kawaoka has argued.

Does he have the support of other scientists?

There is a big split within the scientific community over this kind of work. Some flu specialists support it, provided it is done under strictly regulated and controlled conditions. Others, mostly experts in infectious diseases outside the flu community, are passionately opposed to the work, claiming that the risks of an accidental (or even deliberate) release that will cause a devastating pandemic are too great to justify any practical benefits that may come out of the work.

Have there been any accidental releases from labs in the past?

Some experts cite the unexpected emergence of a new H1N1 strain of flu in 1977, which spread globally over three decades, as an early example of a flu virus being accidentally released from a lab. Genetic evidence points to it having escaped from a lab in China or the Soviet Union.


There are many examples of other infectious agents escaping from labs. Smallpox virus escaped from Birmingham Medical School in 1978 and killed a medical photographer, Janet Parker, the last person to die of smallpox. Foot and mouth virus escaped in 2007 from a veterinary lab in Surrey and in 2004 the SARS virus escaped from a high-containment lab in Beijing, infecting nine people before it was stopped.
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by RamaY »

Scientist Craig Venter creates life for first time in laboratory sparking debate about 'playing god'
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/7745 ... g-god.html


First Life with "Alien" DNA Created in Lab
Read more: http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... ed-in-lab/
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by arvindnath »

Thanks ! This is really very helpful. Best wishes !
govardhanks wrote:Here read this
https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/gen ... chap6.html

It might give you idea about some possible scenario's India might face. Preferably go through weaponization, possible biological agents, mobility problems faced and neutralization/destruction of weapons.

Once you read completely, start yourself in Newbie corner, read some old posts.
Till then

IB4TL :D
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by govardhanks »

Arvind saab, Biological warfare is having few advantages and many disadvantages. Detection of biological weapons might follow a similar pattern of how we detect nuclear materials. But, these guys can superbly concealed perhaps remain undetected for years. At present situation there are no fancy microbes that can infect millions of Indians and go undetected! Whatever viral infections many reports are showing there are ways to overcome and even treat any subjects, it is not like they can be used in war.

What need to be worried if at all , are agents like Botulinum toxin, Anthrax, Zyklon B (the poison used in the Nazi gas chambers), Radioactive uranium or polonium in powder form, Strychnine(just got know this is from Indian plant), Oleander( don't know about this guy a plant leaf can kill a person in 24hrs), etc... these are very well know and some developed and can be used in real war scenario. Many of these guys can be detected at site of production, storage , transportation and delivery or target.

Unknown agents are to be more worried, but I understand your question. There are really some good people in India developing ELISA kits, UV light based devices, X ray or Electric ray based sterilization (can destroy or make these things or make ineffective) and many more methods for detection of Biological agents that are lethal. Yes we have people but we have not been exposed to such a scenario in large, otherwise we would be having a amazing institution like CDC, with protocols to deal emergency associated with Bioweapons.
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by govardhanks »

Found this link, China had a program for Bioweapons, but the page 2 gives details about Soviet Union program also.

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/05/world ... plant.html
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by SaiK »

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl ... 128333.cms

what the heck! aren't doctors human beings? what protection our dakkus have?
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by govardhanks »

Sai sir, they are scared.. A typical doctor with same kind disease patients is a common affair. When there is emergency breakout like this most of people freak out and run. The best is to train them for infectious emergencies which is given very little attention. I had microbiology friend who used get infected every time with brucellosis(just for analyzing sputum samples), horrible infection spreads like wild fire,that fellow sneezed n touched door n some currency notes, believe it or not the whole lab people(30) got infected.
There was historical break out of cholera near Kolkata in 1990s, infecting more than 2000 people, some of them were having saline 3 days continuously, lucky ones got cured, doctors there didt give up (they knew very well abt cholera which sadly is not the case with Ebola, no known cure or treatment effective so far!), I fear today also that one day millions will die just because we don't have many antibiotics.
Typical news paper report covers only doctors, they should check for non medical staff also(who are first to disappear). Since it is private we cannot expect much from them.
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by govardhanks »

arvindnath saab , my apologies for being rude, did't mean it.

Between Ebola outbreak seems to be spreading ,
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/13/healt ... index.html
on.natgeo.com/1ptUVxq

We need to find how it is spreading, are there any animals that can resist it by producing antibodies?

Any pathogen requires a host, this host will not suffer from symptoms or disease instead they simply spread disease, the same host will have antibodies which work against virus, if we could find it , then we can devise a serum to fight against Ebola.

Chronology of the Ebola outbreak-
http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/resources/ ... table.html
http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/resources/outbreaks.html

Treatment vaccines experimental for Ebola-
http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/ ... ments.html
http://dtirp.dtra.mil/CBW/news_archive/ammo.aspx

Image
Image
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by ramana »

Arvindnath, Thanks for starting the thread.

And all those posting IB4TLs should introspect on what have they done for the forum on their own besides posting IB4TLs!


Biowarfare is major concern.

We still don't know what caused the plague in Latur as the DNA of the plague bacteria had high molecular weight.

Also Dr Death, Saddam Hussien's Bio-warfare expert went missing is most likely hiding in TSP.


Indian MND added BCW to nukes for retaliation. So GOI does think this is a credible threat.

I would like us to explore anti-biotic mfg capability, preventive measures/medicines and isolation/quarantine options. Hospital infrastructure.

Just today 'Doctors without Borders' announced opening of 125 bed high secure Ebola hospital in Liberia.
As far as I know the plan to open more AIIMs gets stuck in the Delhi bureaucracy and vested doctors who behave like dakus.
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by arvindnath »

Yes, the stringent monitoring should be at every level as well as the multi-disciplinary approach to tackle these disasters corporately.
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by govardhanks »

Also Dr Death, Saddam Hussien's Bio-warfare expert went missing is most likely hiding in TSP.
Most important is to know Name, his/her qualifications, affiliations, which could give us roughly the idea, from where to start, otherwise Bio or Chem field is pretty vast.

Is it Rihab Rashid Taha al-Azawi?
Microbiologist, Born in 1957, and a graduate of the University of Baghdad, Taha received her Ph.D in plant toxins from the University of East Anglia's School of Biological Sciences in Norwich, England, which she attended from 1980 to 1984.

Just putting some relevant things from Wiki link
In 1985, she worked in the al-Muthanna chemical plant near Baghdad, and later became chief production officer in al-Hakam ,Iraq's top-secret biological-warfare facility at the time.
During several visits to Iraq by United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), set up after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait to inspect Iraqi weapons facilities,weapons inspectors were told by Taha that al-Hakam was a chicken-feed plant. "There were a few things that were peculiar about this animal-feed production plant," Charles Duelfer, UNSCOM's deputy executive chairman, later told reporters, "beginning with the extensive air defenses surrounding it."

In 1995, UNSCOM's principal weapons inspector Dr. Rod Barton from Australia showed Taha documents obtained by UNSCOM from the Israeli government that showed the Iraqi regime had just purchased 10 tons of growth media from a British company called Oxoid. Growth media is a mixture of sugar, proteins and minerals that allows microscopic life to grow; it is used in hospitals, where swabs from patients are placed in dishes containing growth media for diagnostic purposes. Iraq's hospital consumption of growth media was just 200 kg a year; yet in 1988, Iraq imported 39 tons of it.

Shown this evidence by UNSCOM, Taha admitted to the inspectors that her biological weapons agency had grown 19,000 litres of botulism toxin; 8,000 litres of anthrax; 2,000 litres of aflatoxins, which can cause liver cancer; clostridium perfringens, a bacterium that can cause gas gangrene; and ricin, a castor bean derivative which can kill by inhibiting protein synthesis. She also admitted conducting research into cholera, salmonella, foot and mouth disease, and camel pox, a disease that uses the same growth techniques as smallpox, but is safer for researchers to work with. It was because of the discovery of Taha's work with camel pox that the U.S. and British intelligence services feared Saddam Hussein may have been planning to weaponize the smallpox virus. Iraq had a smallpox outbreak in the 1970s and UNSCOM scientists believe the government would have retained contaminated material.

UNSCOM learned that, In August 1990, after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, Taha's team was ordered to set up a program to weaponize the biological agents. By January 1991, a team of 100 scientists and support staff had filled 157 bombs and 16 missile warheads with botulin toxin, and 50 bombs and five missile warheads with anthrax. In an interview with the BBC, Taha denied the Iraqi government had weaponized the bacteria.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huda_Salih_Mahdi_Ammash
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rihab_Taha
http://www.israeldefense.com/?CategoryI ... cleID=2628

Sir, antibiotics are no good , because these guys are working on Toxins(Extract of microbes), antibiotics only work on live microbes.
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by Sagar G »

Good thread, expand the thread topic to Nuclear and Chemical threat as well since we are arming ourselves to deal with NBC threat. India is one of the few countries which are allowed to do research legally on chemical and biological weapons for peaceful purposes.
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by govardhanks »

RamaY wrote:Scientist Craig Venter creates life for first time in laboratory sparking debate about 'playing god'
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/7745 ... g-god.html
Craig J Venter is not equal to Dr. Frankenstein or Dr Maverick?

Sir, remove the playing god content (They are not yet there!), what benefit would it be with creating new organisms? Venter wanted to see whether it is possible and took up the challenge, more like he wanted do it fast before someone else could do it.
First they sequenced the genetic code of Mycoplasma genitalium, the world's smallest bacteria that lives in cattle and goats, and stored the information on a computer. Then they used the computer code to artificially reproduce the DNA in the laboratory, slightly modifying it with a "watermark" so it was distinguishable from the original natural one. Finally they developed a technique of stripping bacteria cells of all original DNA and substituting it with the new artificial code.
The resulting "synthetic cell" was then "rebooted" and it started to replicate. The ability to reproduce or replicate is considered the basic definition of life. Dr Venter compared his work with the building of a computer. Making the artificial DNA was the equivalent of creating the software for the operating system. Transferring it to a cell was like loading it into the hardware and running the programme.
The main controversy from the project is the undue amount of publicity it received from the press due to Venter's showmanship, to the degree that Jay Keasling, a pioneering synthetic biologist and founder of Amyris says "The only regulation we need is of my colleague’s mouth".Scientists who were not involved in the study cautions that it is not a truly synthetic life form because its genome was put into an existing cell. The Vatican has not condemned the discovery, but claims it is not a new life.
It is estimated that the synthetic genome cost US$40 million to make and took 20 people more than a decade of work. Despite the controversy, Venter has attracted over $110 million in investments so far for Synthetic Genomics, with a future deal with Exxon Mobil of $300 million in research to design algae for diesel fuel.
Craig Venter has funded ethical studies, but has been criticised by scientists for over-dramatising the risks of bioterror or bioterrorism, which are misunderstood by the general public. One argument regarding bioterrorism is in regards to smallpox, which could be synthesised and inserted into existing related pox viruses. This approach could theoretically be used to recreate the virus, which has been completely eradicated, except for in two BSL-4 laboratories and digital genomes. Most countries stopped vaccination programs for smallpox by the late 1970s, making a major part of the current world population susceptible to the virus. However, just like the 2001 anthrax attacks, the SARS virus, Ebola scares in the west or other outbreaks scares the damages would be in reality limited and quickly contained.
So essentially, he did't create a new organism. What followed after this was the best experiment " Minimum genes required for a self replicating life" .
J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) conducted a study to find all the essential genes of M. genitalium through global transposon mutagenesis. As a result they found that 382 out of 482 protein coding genes were essential. Genes encoding proteins of unknown function constitute 28% of the essential protein coding genes set. Before conducting this study the JCVI had performed another study on the non-essential genes, genes not required for growth, of M.genitalium, where they reported the use of transposon mutagenesis. Despite figuring out the non-essential genes, it is not confirmed that the products that these genes make have any important biological functions. It was only through gene essentiality studies of bacteria that JCVI have been able to compose a hypothetical minimal gene sets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_genome
http://www.pnas.org/content/103/2/425.full
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoplasma_laboratorium
Now, mind you this M. genitalium is obligate intracellular parasite, it is capable of infecting and growing inside a host cell. Obligate means it cannot reproduce outside the cell (after some genes are removed and some introduced they loose this property). So they basically started remove one by one gene, NO? (he transfered a transposon that creates random mutants, then he screened for minimal gene microbe) and testing whether the bacterium can reproduce or not and then they have succeeded or almost near to it.
It is upto your imagination whether they really funded a master Bioweapon? in the name of research is he hiding it? For me it is YES.

What advantages do we have with minimal genes organism?
Now don't look at the way it has got its story told. These kind of studies give enormous information about how to control fate of the organism. Say I want it produce most powerful lethal toxins in high amount it will do my job. Essentially , what he created is system, a micro-biological system under his control. Say I want to kill some minister , you invite them for dinner , and mix this genetically modified organism in food, they eat and go home, after few days he dies of some unknown disease. Imagine a disease you can cause and only you can cure, you can rule the world.
In an effect a biological micro robot.
Now I bet if Indian scientists start this kind of work, World will bark in front our houses.
So far I put only anti humane threats from it, now lets look at what it can do in civil life. Many pharma companies world wide produce antibiotics, but the yield is historically low and costly to produce, now hijack the synthesis genes and put in M. laboratorium, it will do the job in most efficient way ever possible. The applications are enormous in daily life, curd can be made in mins, cheese can be made in days, what not..

I cannot put images because of Copyrights but I will put links,
https://www.ted.com/talks/craig_venter_ ... hetic_life
http://blogs.plos.org/dnascience/2013/1 ... ated-life/
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2010 ... -life-form
http://www.jcvi.org/cms/home/
Last edited by govardhanks on 17 Aug 2014 18:34, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by govardhanks »

Some how I feel the movies of Zombies, Umbrella cooperation, human living in submarines,legends, some resistant human colonies are all going to be reality one day in distant future!!
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by govardhanks »

Philip wrote:The latest monster.The "Satan bug".New genetically modified flu virus created by US Japanese scientist which leaves humans defenceless.
Exclusive: Controversial US scientist creates deadly new flu strain for pandemic research
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 77088.html
Philip sir that is scary horror, Japan is a disciplined rogue assassin ninja warrior, how is world keeping silent not condemn anything!
Easy target is make existing vaccines ineffective, that would kill million and million of people.

Yet I take a deep breath and say that weaponization of such virus is difficult because it puts the same producing guy at risk. For example, gun powder is safe because it can be produced safely, transport and delivered without much worry, but if the same gun powder could catch fire even if there is one degree rise in room temp, that makes it ineffective weapon, can't be mass produced or proliferated(it will kill the production plant onlyee). I think you are getting my point.

So in essence, assuming a bioweapon from japan with this virus, japan is going to put itself under its risk, its suicidal.

The other point is accidental entry of virus, yeah this situation can effectively wipe out populations. YES again the producing country is at risk!!
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by govardhanks »

ZMapp- the wonder drug the cure for Ebola

ZMapp is a mixture of three monoclonal antibodies, manufactured by Mapp biopharmaceuticals. It is not yet been extensively tested in humans. http://www.bbc.com/news/health-28980153
http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/ ... ments.html

Antibodies are proteins produced in response introduction of foreign substance (biological/organic), they bind to substance and immobilize them and initiate immune response, which will eventually lead to elimination of substance from the body, in some cases the same response is destructive killing the person(e.g.,penicillin sensitivity).Regardless of that theoretically, we should be able to eliminate any microbes coming inside our body, but in reality this does not happen for many reasons.

Short story for Ebola-

There were reports of people being resistant to Ebola(http://en.ird.fr/the-media-centre/scien ... y-to-ebola), it is found that many of them have antibodies against the virus. Then there were also reports of injecting the serum of resistant person and transfer of resistance to susceptible people. In a effect, we term them as Carriers of disease, which means they will not (resistant ones) suffer from disease but will transfer it to other who are susceptible. It is also that immune system cannot complete eliminate a pathogen (kind of debatable), so these resistant guys serve the purpose of devil to carry it to others.

When the same antibodies are introduced to person who has contacted the disease , it kind of mimics the same immune response the donor has, thus giving him/her protection against virus.

I do not know what Mapp guys did but they seems to have made three monoclonal antibodies (each clone recognizes a specific protein part and bind only to it) against the virus and given it as cure to patients, in many cases so far it seems to be effective in preventing the disease, well according to CDC report.

Indian Perspective- We have good facilities both public and private, though I am much more sure about the later for monoclonal antibody production thanks to TIFAC initiative of Dr. Abdul kalam when he was president. The case is, can we produce such antibodies in large quantities with western quality standards? yes our pharma industry complex (LOL sounds like MIC) has several such antibodies and vaccines produced and sold on a large scale. In emergency we can license manufacture them.

All good so far, is Ebola chapter closed? the disease seems to be spreading now, it is that nearly 20k infected people, the dead bodies are major source of viral contamination, elimination of which is presently very difficult (due to African traditional burial), there are few news reports where dead bodies were stolen (can be used as a Bioweapon), well that kind of work is very sophisticated can happen only by legal path, illegal or extremists risk themselves against such an adventure. TSP case, they might try(no dearth of scientific people and equipment) but not on a large scale. Keeping my eyes open for any news of Ebola outbreak in Middle east or TSP.
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by govardhanks »

It seems ISIS got its hand on Bubonic plague.

However a research fellow from Resilience & Emergency Management, at the Royal United Services Institute says, it is most common to find these kind of things on Jihadi extremist laptop,
Plus, biological weapons are extremely unpredictable and their spread cannot be predicted or controlled. This is why regimes and terrorist groups have been so reluctant to use them. They are slow acting, can't be geographically contained and are as likely to hurt you as the enemy. That's why, while lots of groups look into them, none ever use them. She added that bubonic plague 'can be treated with simple antibiotics these days, so no threat anyway' and that polio in Syria is a far bigger worry than biological weapons.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... l-facebook
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by chackojoseph »

rkhanna
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by rkhanna »

It seems ISIS got its hand on Bubonic plague.
AFAIK all they found was a laptop with some research on how to weaponize the Plaque IF they captured an Animal infected by it. The Laptop's owner was an a guy with a Chemical degree (probably undergraduate) from a MEA university.
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by govardhanks »

I was just reporting the event here nothing else because somewhere I want to know the reason why they choose plague, I am also of the opinion that it difficult to weaponize bioweapons.
Moreover IS is known for kidnapping and asking ransom, I would think It is not that difficult for them to do it for graduate with skills in handling these kind of things. Just waiting for any such disease break out news.
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by govardhanks »

Although old news, but has to put it here,

Mass spec based diagnosis,
http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v31/n ... -862a.html

This system has a capability to identify any foreign particles like virus or any bio-weapons a suspect might have. There are reports from here , where it has been used for diagnosis of cancer, but on a broad aspect, it can identify all protein fragments in sample thereby getting to identify even bacterial and viral proteins.
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by govardhanks »

The recent plague infection report in US,
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/07/2 ... -colorado/

South east Africa seems to have highest incidence of plague(2000-2009)!
http://www.cdc.gov/plague/maps/index.html
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by rsingh »

This Ebola outbreak is strange. US, UK and Japan had vaccine ready for this. They needed field testing. What a convenient pretext. Americans and British citizens were there to facilitate the testing. Then they brought "untested medicine" for cure. What next? Some western tourist brings Ebola to some crowded city in India and then we have to buy the vaccine………..from UK. I am suspicious from the first day about this.JMT
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by govardhanks »

rsingh wrote:This Ebola outbreak is strange. US, UK and Japan had vaccine ready for this. They needed field testing. What a convenient pretext. Americans and British citizens were there to facilitate the testing. Then they brought "untested medicine" for cure. What next? Some western tourist brings Ebola to some crowded city in India and then we have to buy the vaccine………..from UK. I am suspicious from the first day about this.JMT
Sir, Basically there is list of potential biological weapons which some research institute in US made(I was't lucky to get complete list in web search), since funding was no problem they might have a devised a method treatment for each case. The viral diseases with high mortality may require vaccine or antibody based treatment, so they were almost prepared very much ahead of such case, recent Ebola outbreak was an example of how prepared these institutes are, but do not underestimate our people.

Yet if you see the Ebola case, they might be field testing (in a positive sense), but what is probability for a medicine to be effective at first instance? Ans- Very low, so it is a cover up story I guess.
So far they have't charged anything , and are giving them for free (Zmapp, surprised b'cos it is not easy and cheap to produce monoclonal antibody) , So I would like praise for humanity they are showing!!
Last edited by govardhanks on 15 Sep 2014 19:48, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by johneeG »

rsingh wrote:This Ebola outbreak is strange. US, UK and Japan had vaccine ready for this. They needed field testing. What a convenient pretext. Americans and British citizens were there to facilitate the testing. Then they brought "untested medicine" for cure. What next? Some western tourist brings Ebola to some crowded city in India and then we have to buy the vaccine………..from UK. I am suspicious from the first day about this.JMT
I saw a cartoon: chota bheem.
In that cartoon, a guy comes to a village and sells shampoos at very cheap rates. All the people in village buy it because its cheap. Then, the next day all people lose their hair. The same guy who sold the shampoos is now selling wigs at high prices. But everyone buys it because they need something to cover their hairloss.

Ok, now, did the shampoo have anything to do with hairloss?
Why did he sell shampoo so cheaply?
How did he know that people would need wigs?

Maybe, its a lucky coincident.
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by JayS »

Have this video been posted before on BRF?? From 1:00 onwards the IE editor Shekhar Gupta talks about the Chemical Weapons India had. Interesting anecdote.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8A0fBxn-q4

I had no idea before seeing this video about a year ago that India had chemical weapons.
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by rkhanna »

This Ebola outbreak is strange. US, UK and Japan had vaccine ready for this. They needed field testing. What a convenient pretext. Americans and British citizens were there to facilitate the testing. Then they brought "untested medicine" for cure. What next? Some western tourist brings Ebola to some crowded city in India and then we have to buy the vaccine………..from UK. I am suspicious from the first day about this.JMT
Some people also believe CIA/Mossad/RAW/Santa Clause did 9/11 and 26/11, blah blah. If you look for Ninja's on the front lawn you might just end up finding them. :wink:
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by rsingh »

^^
Don't know about 9/11 et all but Ebola case make sense. That is my POV. It is completely doable. All you need is a small container.
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by govardhanks »

Found some interesting read on Anitbiotic mining (Courtesy : NYT times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/11/healt ... .html?_r=0)
Analyzing the bacteria that live in our bodies, the scientists identified genes for making over 3,000 previously unknown molecules that may prove to be useful drugs.

“Nobody had thought to look that close to home,” said Dr. Fischbach.

Finding these small molecules — known as natural products — has traditionally been a slow affair. Microbes typically make natural products in exquisitely tiny amounts, and they don’t rely on a single gene to do so. Instead, microbes need dozens of different proteins made by different genes to craft a natural product.Dr. Fischbach and his colleagues set out five years ago to speed up the search. They wrote a software program that learns how to recognize the genes for natural products.

Those genes tend to sit together in a cluster in a microbe’s DNA, and they are very similar to one another. By shuffling them into different combinations, microbes can produce a staggering range of molecules.

To train the software, Dr. Fischbach and his colleagues introduced it to 732 gene clusters that are already known to make natural products. As the software examined cluster after cluster, it came to recognize distinctive patterns. Eventually the program got so good that it could accurately pinpoint new gene clusters in DNA sequences it had never encountered before.

The scientists wondered what would happen if they turned their well-educated computer loose on the microbes that live in our bodies.

They provided it with a vast genetic library created in an ongoing study called the Human Microbiome Project. The project scientists have collected microbial DNA from five different body sites on 242 healthy volunteers. From that genetic material, they were able to sequence the entire genomes of 2,340 different microbial species, most of which were new to science.

Searching those genomes, the computer spotted more than 14,000 gene clusters for natural products. Dr. Fischbach and his colleagues tossed out the gene clusters that were present in only a few people. They were left with 3,118 common ones.
Their study suggests that the human microbiome is a rich source of previously unknown natural products.

“That wasn’t where I expected to find interesting drug-producing genes,” said Dr. Fischbach. “I was really taken aback.”

To show the potential medical value of these genes, Dr. Fischbach and his colleagues picked out a single cluster to study more closely. It belongs a species of bacteria called Lactobacillus gasseri. They reared huge numbers of the bacteria in the laboratory in order to isolate a speck of one its products, which they dubbed lactocillin.

They found that its structure is similar to a recently discovered antibiotic called LFF571, which the drug company Novartis is now testing in clinical trials. When Dr. Fischbach and his colleagues exposed several species of bacteria to lactobacillin, the microbes died, suggesting that it might also be a good antibiotic.
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abs ... 9)00918-X#
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 7414011027

But in reality only 1 or 5 out them will be clinically worth for treatments, whats interesting is that, since we are exposed to these antibiotics on a daily basis, this study may very well negate some known side effects associated with usage of antibiotics. Meanwhile we should brace ourselves of reality for 10k different antibiotics in future. But isn't it that, there is world wide (or it is Indian, more or less South Asian) consensus for usage of penicillin family of antibiotics soon wading off !! and US is moving for aminoglycosides?

To know more about family of antibiotics visit these pages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_antibiotics
http://www.emedexpert.com/lists/antibiotics.shtml

Extract- 24 different family of antibiotics presently known, many of them are having clinically very difficult to deal side effects. But it is threats of resistance which is much better to understand, for e.g., we are almost near to get infections with microbes that are resistance third generation of Cephalosporins.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3414027/ 2012 Indian report.

Read this as well if interested,
CDC report of Antibiotic threats of US 2013,
http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/threa ... 13-508.pdf
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by member_20317 »

Many many years back I had read that Ebola is less of a trouble because it is a very very fast acting virus. Infected people get the symptoms within 24 hours and are dead just as fast. So the only real danger is that the medical personnel who may have gotten exposed themselves to the bodily fluids/excreted fluids of their patients, could infect others too or fall to it themselves. At least that much was the take away for me. This fast acting nature means it is useless as a bio-weapon.

Current Ebola infection, curiously, is going on and on and on.


Then there used to be a CT that AIDS itself could have been a bio-weapon. Since the doctor/researcher community ignored it I also allowed it to fall out of my memory.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/27/healt ... -hiv-drug/
Doctor treats Ebola with HIV drug in Liberia -- seemingly successfully
By Elizabeth Cohen, Senior Medical Correspondent
September 27, 2014 -- Updated 0608 GMT (1408 HKT)

(CNN) -- A doctor in rural Liberia inundated with Ebola patients says he's had good results with a treatment he tried out of sheer desperation: an HIV drug.

Dr. Gobee Logan has given the drug, lamivudine, to 15 Ebola patients, and all but two survived. That's a 7% mortality rate.

Across West Africa, the virus has killed 70% of its victims.

Outside Logan's Ebola center in Tubmanburg, four of his recovering patients walk the grounds, always staying inside the fence that separates the Ebola patients from everyone else.

"My stomach was hurting; I was feeling weak; I was vomiting," Elizabeth Kundu, 23, says of her bout with the virus. "They gave me medicine, and I'm feeling fine. We take it, and we can eat -- we're feeling fine in our bodies."

Kundu and the other 12 patients who took the lamivudine and survived, received the drug in the first five days or so of their illness. The two patients who died received it between days five and eight.

"I'm sure that when [patients] present early, this medicine can help," Logan said. "I've proven it right in my center."

Logan is mindful that lamivudine can cause liver and other problems, but he says it's worth the risk since Ebola is so deadly.

He also knows American researchers will say only a real study can prove effectiveness. That would involve taking a much larger patient population and giving half of them lamivudine and the other half a placebo.

"Our people are dying and you're taking about studies?" he said. "It's a matter of doing all that I can do as a doctor to save some people's lives."

Logan said he got the idea to try lamivudine when he read in scientific journals that HIV and Ebola replicate inside the body in much the same way.

"Ebola is a brainchild of HIV," he said. "It's a destructive strain of HIV."

At first he tried an HIV drug called acyclovir, but it didn't seem to be effective. Then he tried lamivudine on a healthcare worker who'd become ill, and within a day or two he showed signs of improvement and survived.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says that theoretically, Logan's approach has some merit. Lamivudine is a nucleocide analog, and other drugs in this class are being studied to treat Ebola. [ :twisted: Proper TFTA endorsement also present]

Fauci asked CNN to give Logan his email address, saying perhaps his lab could do some follow up work.

Logan says he plans to email Fauci this weekend.
...................

Misc references:

http://www.diffen.com/difference/Nucleo ... Nucleotide

From wiki:
These agents can be used against hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, herpes simplex, and HIV. Once they are phosphorylated, they work as antimetabolites by being similar enough to nucleotides to be incorporated into growing DNA strands; but they act as chain terminators and stop viral DNA Polymerase. They are not specific to viral DNA and also affect mitochondrial DNA.
Again from wiki:
Lamivudine has been used for treatment of chronic hepatitis B at a lower dose than for treatment of HIV. It improves the seroconversion of e-antigen positive hepatitis B and also improves histology staging of the liver. Long term use of lamivudine leads to emergence of a resistant hepatitis B virus (YMDD) mutant. Despite this, lamivudine is still used widely as it is well tolerated.
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by member_20317 »

I was trying to figure out what would happen in the two cases:
1) How long would Ebola cured people remain capable of transmitting the virus.
2) How would Ebola infected but asymptomatic people be in terms of infecting others.


Found the following links.
http://www.inquisitr.com/1550474/how-ma ... find-them/

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-hap ... 14-10?IR=T
People who survive Ebola can lead normal lives post-recovery, though occasionally they can suffer inflammatory conditions of the joints afterward, according to CBS. Recovery times can vary, and so can the amount of time it takes for the virus to clear out of the system.

The World Health Organization found that the virus can reside in semen for up to seven weeks after recovery. Survivors are generally assumed to be immune to the particular strain they are infected by and are able to help tend to others infected with the same strain. What isn't clear is whether a person is immune to other strains of Ebola, or if their immunity will last.

<snip>

But even less understood than the survivors are the people who were infected with Ebola but never developed any symptoms. After outbreaks in Uganda in the late 1990's, scientists tested the blood of several people who were in close contact with Ebola patients, and found that a number of them had markers in their blood indicating they carried the disease but were totally asymptomatic — they managed to completely avoid the horrifying symptoms of the disease.

In a letter in the Lancet this week, researchers look into the existence of these asymptomatic patients, hoping that identifying people who are naturally immune could help contain the outbreak as scientists work on developing a treatment. A 2010 study published by the French research organization IRD found that as much as 15.3 percent of Gabon's population could be immune to Ebola.
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles ... -world.htm
CDC director Tom Freiden recently stated that the key is to break the link in the chain of transmission.
"That's how we have stopped every Ebola outbreak in history except the one currently in West Africa," he said.

<snip>

In a letter recently published in The Lancet medical journal, experts from the University of Texas at Austin suggest that the normally fatal virus has lived in the bodies of people who have never fallen ill or infected others.

<snip>

It is important to note that it remains unclear if immunity to Ebola is even possible, or if the virus is simply adversely affecting some people in a unique and not as obvious way.
Similarly, it was long thought that rabies - one of the deadliest infections known to man - was instant death for humans. However, rare cases have been found where some people boast a natural resistance to the disease - not necessarily entirely immune to it, but also not dying or passing it on to others.

The researchers note that there is evidence of similar "asymptomatic Ebola infections" in the aftermath of past Ebola outbreaks.
"Understanding the prevalence and immunological effects of these silent Ebola infections is critical to making reliable epidemic projections and improving control efforts," added researcher Ancel Meyers. "We believe that we can and should investigate this phenomenon as soon as possible."

http://theconversation.com/bats-immunit ... eaks-32633
16 October 2014, 2.48pm AEDT
Bat’s immunity may hold key to preventing future Ebola outbreaks


AUTHOR

Michelle Baker
Research scientist at CSIRO
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

Michelle Baker receives funding from The Australian Research Council

Bats are the natural host species for Ebola and a variety of viruses, many of which can be fatal when transmitted to humans. More than 100 viruses have been identified in bats and this number is rising each year.

African fruit bats first transmitted Ebola virus to primates and other species through contact with bat droppings, half-eaten fruit or bodily fluids of diseased bats. People are thought to have contracted the virus through contact with infected bats and primates. Subsequent person–to-person transmission occurs through direct contact with infected body fluids: blood, saliva, mucus, vomit, urine or faeces.

Interestingly, bats have the ability to harbour viruses such as Ebola and don’t display clinical signs of disease. Yet once the virus infects other species, it has the potential to cause widespread death and disease. How is it that bats are resistant to a disease that kills up to 90% of people it infects?

Ebola virus infection

The impact of Ebola virus in people is largely the result of the activation of the immune system, rather than the virus itself. During the initial stages of infection, Ebola shuts off the immune response to the virus, resulting in rapid viral replication and a delay in the production of antibodies.

The immune system is initiated only once the virus is out of control and then results in over-activation of the immune response. Although the role of the immune system is to eliminate the virus, when it is activated at extreme levels it becomes damaging to the host – in this case, an infected patient.

Like all haemorrhagic fevers, this results in widespread tissue damage, leading to internal and external bleeding, decreased kidney and liver function and ultimately, in many cases, death.

Therapies

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the largest ever recorded and is continuing to accelerate. Researchers and drug companies are racing to develop treatments and vaccines targeting the Zaire ebolavirus, the strain that is causing the current outbreak.


The Ebola vaccine trial results will be assessed next month. Image Point Fr/Shutterstock
The first human trial to establish the safety of the vaccine and assess the immune responses of volunteers is underway. The researchers hope that by November there will be enough data to make an informed decision about whether to deploy the vaccine in Western Africa.

So far, studies in monkeys have demonstrated that the vaccine provides protective immunity for up to ten months.

Unlocking the bat immune system

Studying how bats control viral replication may unlock alternative mechanisms for tackling Ebola as well as other new and emerging infectious diseases. Increasing antimicrobial resistance of viruses, bacteria and fungi, for instance, is becoming a global concern and we need to think creatively to find solutions.

Bats and viruses have achieved an equilibrium that allows them to co-exist. Clues from studies of bat genomes have revealed differences in genes associated with the very early immune response that could help bats respond to infections. These genes appear to be evolving at a faster rate in bats compared with other species, providing evidence that they are likely co-evolving with the viruses that bats carry.

Functional differences in the immune system may also play a role. Unlike humans and mice, which activate their immune systems only in response to an infection, bats appear to have certain components of their immune system constantly switched on. This may allow bats to control viral replication much more efficiently compared with other species.

If we can redirect the immune responses of other species to behave in a similar manner to that of bats, the high death rate associated with diseases such as Ebola could be a thing of the past.

It’s tempting to look to culling as the answer to deal with bats as the natural hosts of Ebola. This suggestion was made during the spillover of Hendra virus from bats to horses in Australia. But it is not the answer; bats are an extremely successful group of mammals, making up 20% of all mammalian diversity. They are critical to ecosystems, with roles in insect control and pollination.

Rather than persecuting bats, we need to unravel the secrets of the success of this group of mammals. Understanding how bats control viral replication would not only assist in developing future therapeutics but may also help predict transmission events from bats into human and animal populations.

Also there is some talk about the Ebola virus becoming or being airborne too :| .
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by bharats »

India calls for stronger action against biological weapons
Link: http://zeenews.india.com/news/india/ind ... 89603.html

United Nations: Warning against terrorists trying to get biological weapons, India has called for stronger international action to contain their spread. India also suggested a discussion of "perceptions regarding the ongoing outbreak of Ebola virus". The UN Security Council has declared Ebola "a threat to international peace and security".

Ambassador DB Venkatesh Varma said: "Improving the effectiveness of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and strengthening its implementation and universalisation is necessary in view of the new challenges to international peace and security emanating from proliferation trends, including the threat posed by terrorists or other non-state actors seeking access to biological agents or toxins for terrorist purposes."

Only an international mechanism for verifying compliance with the convention can ensure compliance with it and deter violating it, Varma, who is India's Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament, said Friday at the UN General Assembly's committee that deals with disarmament and international security.

New Delhi shares the widespread interest among nations to "strengthen the effectiveness and improve the implementation of the Convention through the negotiation and conclusion of a Protocol for that purpose," he said.
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by govardhanks »

Many many years back I had read that Ebola is less of a trouble because it is a very very fast acting virus. Infected people get the symptoms within 24 hours and are dead just as fast. So the only real danger is that the medical personnel who may have gotten exposed themselves to the bodily fluids/excreted fluids of their patients, could infect others too or fall to it themselves. At least that much was the take away for me. This fast acting nature means it is useless as a bio-weapon.
Current Ebola infection, curiously, is going on and on and on.
Ravi sir, I think Ebola was mismanaged,

1. WHO could have made effective biological containment at least that it would not have reached developed countries,which did't happen. Basically big walls,we might have seen in Hollywood zombies movies should have been constructed for isolation of infected human population.
2. When disease affects poorer population/countries, no matter how many basic amenities are supplied it cannot be countered.
3. Ebola perhaps gives us a best example, how a viral disease spreads, how difficult it is for containment.
4. Only hope is now on Vaccine from WHO/CDC/European countries.
5. Microbial Diseases changed the face of human history, we are all well aware of that, the same culprits helped a lot for English medicines/lifestyle to prevail in India, what change this Ebola is going to bring we just have wait and see.

One thing we immediately might see now is , "Ebola made humans into animals"
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Re: India and Biological Warfare

Post by ramana »

Six years ago in 2014 we started this thread in Mil Forum where it languished with lot of IB4TLs.

Please read how many names, animals , vaccines , combination drugs were mentioned.

Dr. Fauci, bats, triple drug, etc....
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