As I mentioned in my posts before, almost all science has potential for dual-use. This leads to dilemmas and heated discussions and restrictions and surveillance of scientists and their research. I will explain this dual-use problem on the example of botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) or Botox, as most people know it.
I think all of you know about Botox and how it is used to help ageing people to correspond to our weird beauty ideal. Another, more clinical use for Botox is the treatment of several neurological disorders like muscle spasm or a lack of muscle control. In this case a small amount of Botox is injected into a muscle to relax it and thus reduces the symptoms of the disorder. The treatment has to be repeated about three or four times a year, can be applied to children as well as adults and has very few side effects.
I think all of you know about Botox and how it is used to help ageing people to correspond to our weird beauty ideal. Another, more clinical use for Botox is the treatment of several neurological disorders like muscle spasm or a lack of muscle control. In this case a small amount of Botox is injected into a muscle to relax it and thus reduces the symptoms of the disorder. The treatment has to be repeated about three or four times a year, can be applied to children as well as adults and has very few side effects.
Botox is, however, also a very effective toxin leading to a potentially fatal illness called Botulism. When infected, the patient experiences acute weakness of muscles, difficulty in speaking and swallowing and a blurred vision. These symptoms aggravate leading to respiratory muscle paralysis that can cause death if the patient does not receive treatment. As Botulism does not affect the mental functions of the patient he stays conscious throughout the entire course of the disease.
There are four forms of Botulism, namely food borne, infant, wound and animal. The only difference between the forms are the way of infection, but if you want to know the exact differences you can read through them here or here.
So, besides the fact that Botulism does not seem to be a very pleasant disease, why again are BoNTs so extremely dangerous and have a high potential to be abused as a biological weapon?
BoNTs high potential for a abuse is due to fact that only 39.2 g of its pure form would be enough to eradicate mankind. Should BoNTs ever be used as a biological weapon it is most likely to be either by contamination of food or as an aerosol attack. Additionally, the spores can survive very long periods of time because they are highly resistant to heat, desiccation (Austrocknung), chemicals, radiation and oxygen. Furthermore, BoNTs are rather easy to generate. The first outbreaks of Botulism were caused by food preservation. Under the right conditions BoNTs arise for instance in canned or jarred food, carrot juice or garlic in oil. Over 90% of the first registered cases of Botulism were caused by home preserved food, which is also why food production is under such strict regulations today.
But just imagine some terrorist would have access to the production facilities of a company that produces canned food. By altering production just a tiny little bit he could easily contaminate huge amounts of food without anybody noticing.
Even though there is a possible vaccination against Botulism it is not applied to the population due to the facts that it is a. too expensive b. would restrict the use of Botox for beauty or clinical purposes and c. that there are still several shortcomings with the currently available form of the vaccination.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3028942/
http://wuphysicians.wustl.edu/dept.aspx?pageID=17&ID=4
There are four forms of Botulism, namely food borne, infant, wound and animal. The only difference between the forms are the way of infection, but if you want to know the exact differences you can read through them here or here.
So, besides the fact that Botulism does not seem to be a very pleasant disease, why again are BoNTs so extremely dangerous and have a high potential to be abused as a biological weapon?
BoNTs high potential for a abuse is due to fact that only 39.2 g of its pure form would be enough to eradicate mankind. Should BoNTs ever be used as a biological weapon it is most likely to be either by contamination of food or as an aerosol attack. Additionally, the spores can survive very long periods of time because they are highly resistant to heat, desiccation (Austrocknung), chemicals, radiation and oxygen. Furthermore, BoNTs are rather easy to generate. The first outbreaks of Botulism were caused by food preservation. Under the right conditions BoNTs arise for instance in canned or jarred food, carrot juice or garlic in oil. Over 90% of the first registered cases of Botulism were caused by home preserved food, which is also why food production is under such strict regulations today.
But just imagine some terrorist would have access to the production facilities of a company that produces canned food. By altering production just a tiny little bit he could easily contaminate huge amounts of food without anybody noticing.
Even though there is a possible vaccination against Botulism it is not applied to the population due to the facts that it is a. too expensive b. would restrict the use of Botox for beauty or clinical purposes and c. that there are still several shortcomings with the currently available form of the vaccination.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3028942/
http://wuphysicians.wustl.edu/dept.aspx?pageID=17&ID=4
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