DETECTION OF MEDICAL DEFENSE AGAINST BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS

File: 123096_sep96_decls1_0065.txt
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Total Pages: 109

Subject: DETECTION OF MEDICAL DEFENSE AGAINST BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS       

Unit: OTSG        

Parent Organization: HSC         

Box  ID: BX003203

Folder Title: DETECTION OF MEDICAL DEFENSE AGAINST BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS                                       

Document Number:          1

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                                                         NATO UNCLASSIFIED


                                                              Chapter I

                                                            INTRODUCTION

                      CENEP.AL

                      101.   The purpose of this handbook is to provide an overall view Of Elie
                      problems that might be created in a      biological operation and of the methods of
                      handling these problems. Experimental and theoretical considerations underlie
                      the concepts set forah. The handbook is not meant to be all inclusive.
                      Additional information is available from existing textbooks on infectious
                      diseases. The report of the American Public Health Association Control of
                      Communicable Disease in man* is particularly recommended.

                      DEFINITION

                      102.   The NATO Clossary (AAP-6) defines a biological warfare agent as "a
                      microorganism which causes disease in man, plants or animals or causes
                      deterioration of material." The information contained in this handbook will
                      pertain LO those microorganisms and also toxins which produce disease in man
                      as a result of biological operations. Clearly such operations would affect
                      animals and plants, and therefore the food chain; however those ramifications
                      will not be discussed in this document.

                      HISTORICAL

                      103.   The following events, some proven, some alleged, of the use of
                      biological warfare agents have been recorded:

                             a. Biological weapons were almost certainly used in prehiscory and
                      there are ample reports documenting its use in antiquity. Certainly the
ed their arrowpoints into deco-.iposing cadavers
                      understood something of the nature of contagion, as did the Greek military
                      strategist Hermocrates. who forced an opposing army to camp in a swamp where
                      malaria was known to be endemic.

                             b. In 1346. during the siege of Kaffa (now Feadossia), the bodies of
                             Tartar soldiers who succumbed to the plague (now known to be caused by
                             the bacterium Yersinia pestis and transmitted either directly through
                             air droplets or indirectly through fleas), were catapulted over the
                             walls of the besieged city.

                             C. A cenlury later, the troops of the Spanish conqueror Pizarro are
                             said to hive introduced smallpox among the South American Indians by
                             presenting them with Clothing which had been in contact with smallpox
                             patients. The same method of warfare is said to have been used in the
                             18Lh century against the Indian tribes in North America.


                      *Control of Communicable Disease in Kan. American Public Health Association,
                      lith Edition, New York 1960.


                                                                  2

Document 109 f:/Week-36/BX003203/DETECTION OF MEDICAL DEFENSE AGAINST BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS/detection of medical defense against biological :1217960927452
Control Fields 17
File Room = sep96_declassified
File Cabinet = Week-36
Box ID = BX003203
Unit = OTSG
Parent Organization = HSC
Folder Title = DETECTION OF MEDICAL DEFENSE AGAINST BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS
Folder Seq # = 21
Subject = DETECTION OF MEDICAL DEFENSE AGAINST BIOLOGICAL
Document Seq # = 1
Document Date =
Scan Date =
Queued for Declassification = 01-JAN-1980
Short Term Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Long Term Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Permanent Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Non-Health Related Document = 01-JAN-1980
Declassified = 17-DEC-1996