History of biological warfare and bioterrorism.

Bioterrorsim litteraly means using microbes or infected samples to cause terror and panic in population. Bioterrorism already started 14th centuries before Christ when Hitties sent infected rams to their ennemies. However, apart from some rare well documented events, it is often very difficult for historians and microbiologists to differentiate natural epidemics from alleged biological attacks since (i) little data are available before the advent of modern microbiology, (ii) truth may be manipulated for political reasons especially when dealing with a hot topic such as a biological attack, and (iii) the time may also have distorted the reality of the past. However, we nevertheless tried to provide to clinical microbiologists an overview of some likely biological warfare that occurred before the 18th Century and that included the intentional spread of epidemic diseases such as tularemia, plague, malaria, smallpox, yellow fever and leprosy. In this review article, we also summarize the main events that occured during the modern microbiology era from first World War to the recent "anthrax letters" that followed the World Trade Center attack of September 2001. Again, the political polemics surrounding the use of infectious agents as a weapon may distort the truth. This is nicely exemplified by the Sverdlovsk accident initially attributed by the authorities to a natural foodborne outbreak and officially recognized as a military cause only 13th years later. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.