China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Health Professionals and Historic Human Research Ethics
Published in Howard Winet, Ethics for Bioengineering Scientists, 2021
A decade before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese army had concluded that their plan to conquer southeast Asia could not be achieved without resorting to non-conventional weapons. Chemical and biological warfare appeared to be the most qualified means for subduing their adversaries. But, in order to optimize the effectiveness of chemical and biological agent weapons, the army had to test the end products under battlefield conditions, that is, on human subjects. A network of 26 testing camps, distributed over southeast Asia, was built as the Japanese military gained footholds in the targeted countries (Working 2001). The headquarters for this setup—called “unit 731”—was in the Harbin, Manchuria suburb of Ping Fan. Its commanding officer was Lieutenant General Shiro Ishii, M.D. A workforce of some 20,000, including botanists, microbiologists, physicians, veterinarians, and zoologists was employed (Harris 1994). About 15,000 prisoners were interned in the camps, but testing extended to tens of thousands of people living in the surrounding areas, which served as “battlefields”.
Healthy People / Immuno-enhancement
Published in Jonathan Anomaly, Creating Future People, 2020
Disease exchange throughout history has followed trade and conquest, but it has also enabled it. Although people didn’t really understand the nature of disease until the confirmation of the germ theory in the nineteenth century, some populations had an intuitive sense of what was going on. So much so that at various times armies have engaged in primitive biological warfare. For example, there is strong evidence that invading armies of Mongols hurled bodies infected with the plague into the city of Caffa (in Crimea) in order to transmit the disease and hasten their military conquest (Wheelis, 2002).
Chemical and Biological Threats to Public Safety
Published in Frank A. Barile, Barile’s Clinical Toxicology, 2019
Naturally occurring or laboratory-derived biological pathogens and their products, released intentionally or accidentally, can result in disease or death. Human exposure to these agents may occur through inhalation, skin (cutaneous) exposure, or ingestion of contaminated food or water. Following exposure, physical symptoms may be delayed and sometimes confused with naturally occurring illnesses, thus contributing to the possible postponement in response. In addition, biological warfare agents may persist in the environment and cause problems long after their release.
Impairment of wound healing by reactive skin decontamination lotion (RSDL®) in a Göttingen minipig® model
Published in Cutaneous and Ocular Toxicology, 2020
Jessica M. Connolly, Robert S. Stevenson, Roy F. Railer, Offie E. Clark, Kimberly A. Whitten, Robyn B. Lee-Stubbs, Dana R. Anderson
Reactive Skin Decontamination Lotion (RSDL®) is an individually carried skin decontamination kit approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2003 for use against chemical or biological warfare agents1–5. RSDL is currently employed by the United States Armed Forces as the Joint Service Personnel/Skin Decontamination System, providing personnel the ability to rapidly decontaminate skin and equipment upon exposure1,5,6. It enables removal and neutralisation of vesicant and nerve chemical warfare agents (CWA’s) to include sulphur mustard (HD), soman (GD), sarin (GB), tabun (GA), VX, and T-2 toxin1,3,5,7–9.
Comparative genome analysis of Alkhumra hemorrhagic fever virus with Kyasanur forest disease and tick-borne encephalitis viruses by the in silico approach
Published in Pathogens and Global Health, 2018
Navaneethan Palanisamy, Dario Akaberi, Johan Lennerstrand, Åke Lundkvist
AHFV, as a fairly new member of the Flavivirus, requires detailed study in order to elucidate putative antiviral drugs. Such studies have high priority for several reasons: (1) the mortality rate from AHFV is the highest among all the Flaviviruses [10]; (2) the infected patients show both hemorrhagic and neurological symptoms, which can cause brain damage; (3) the virus is endemic in Saudi Arabia, especially areas adjoining the Mecca and Jeddah cities (Muslims throughout the world gather at Mecca and Jeddah every year for their Hajj. Therefore, there is a possibility for the virus to efficiently spread to other countries); and (4) the virus has the potential to be weaponized for biological warfare.
Preparation of a nanovaccine against Brucella melitensis M16 based on PLGA nanoparticles and oligopolysaccharide antigen
Published in Artificial Cells, Nanomedicine, and Biotechnology, 2019
Masoud Maleki, Mojtaba Salouti, Mehdi Shafiee Ardestani, Alireza Talebzadeh
Brucella, coccobacilli, gram-negative and non-moving bacteria is a cause of fever of Malta, Mediterranean fever, or feverish fever in humans. The pathogenicity of Brucella melitensis is greater for humans than other strains of Brucella [1]. International reports show that more than 500,000 new cases of brucellosis occur annually in humans [2]. Antibiotic regimens for human brucellosis patients may last several months and are not always completely effective. In some patients, symptoms of acute brucellosis can endure over one year and eventually result in chronic persistence [3]. On the other hand, The United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has classified bioterrorism agents into three categories. In this classification, Brucellosis was also included in the second group in terms of ease of release and mortality [4]. Brucella spp. is highly infectious through aerosol route, making it an attractive pathogen to be used as a potential agent for biological warfare [2]. While there are no vaccines for humans, several licenced live Brucella vaccines are available for use in livestock, but existing animal vaccines may lead to illness and are considered inappropriate for use in humans [5,6]. The use of cellular components of bacteria for sterile immunity has been investigated in previous studies [7]. But the problems of this method, weakness of soluble antigens, apart from some larger delivery vectors, are the less absorption by cells and consequently less stimulation of the immune system. This has led to the spread of vaccine carriers that have more ability to imitate the physical–chemical properties of natural pathogens and increase the delivery of antigen to the immune system [8].