NCJ Number
191223
Journal
Jounal of the American Medical Association Volume: 278 Issue: 5 Dated: August 6, 1997 Pages: 435-436
Date Published
1997
Length
2 pages
Annotation
This paper suggests doctors are in a position to help empower the Biological Weapons Convention to limit outbreaks of infectious diseases.
Abstract
The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) has been in place since 1972, but with the collapse of the Soviet Union, compliance on the part of Russia was the centerpiece of anxiety in 1989. Iraq has been proven to have biological weapons. The biological weapons were used in a Tokyo subway. It is not difficult to find recipes for home-brew botulinum toxin on the Internet. The growth of biotechnology has great promise for new modes of diagnosis and therapy, but if left unchecked, advances in biotechnology will allow for even more troublesome microbiological agents of destruction. Physicians can help drive home the message that habitual practice of biological weapons would be ruinous, undermining personal security and civil order far more grievously than another weapon likely to get in the hands of rogue states or individuals. The abnegation of biological weapons is approaching the status of a norm of international behavior. The task is to build that moral consensus and give it sustainability and priority over more transient aspects of perceived national interest, like commercial advantage or access to resources. The United States' adherence to the BWC is an absolute prerequisite to the moral platform of biological weapons prohibition. Physicians in every country should be empowered to scrutinize suspicious occurrences with regard to infectious disease and microbiological agents. Revival of trust between America and Russia will be further promoted by initiatives for joint cooperation research and public health programs, particularly in infectious diseases. Physicians will be in the front line for remediation in the wake of a biological weapons attack. They should be alert to any constellation of disease that might be the harbinger of new outbreaks. Doctors are in the best position to assess the readiness of their local health services to deal with health emergencies.