Unyttige fakta (LES reglene i første post!)

[andesam]

halvparten av alle mennesker som noen gang har levd lever nå.

 

litt sykt å tenke på...

[MemorY]

litt resultater fra sommer mesterskap i hopp i russland

 

1Dimitry Ipatov(1984)- Magadan

2Dmitry Vassiliev(1979)- CSKA UFA (RUS B)

3Ildar Fatkullin(1982)- CSKA UFA (RUS A)

 

Fjorårets mester Kornilov havnet på en skuffende 8 plass, mye grunnet 8 kilo ekstra pga vekt regler

 

8Denis Kornilov(1986)- Sdushor (N Novgorod) (RUS A)

 

Mesterskapet ble holdt i K80 meteren i Nizhny Novgorod.

 

er bilde av baken finnes også..

 

0,5 liter med cola inneholder 180 kj. 42 kcal

Endret 17. oktober 2004 av rkg1000

[nr.4]

halvparten av alle mennesker som noen gang har levd lever nå.

Den påstanden der er sinnssykt usikker da. Jeg har sett mange andre andre atskillig høyere tall for hvor mange mennesker det har levd.

[chokke]

menneske, snakker dere om homo sapiens da? eller menneskeape? eller en melllomting eller whatever

[Dorian Gray]

halvparten av alle mennesker som noen gang har levd lever nå.

Den påstanden der er sinnssykt usikker da. Jeg har sett mange andre andre atskillig høyere tall for hvor mange mennesker det har levd.

Jeg har lest at for hver person som lever nå er det ti som er dø. Skal se om jeg finner kilde.

[gspr]

Den tilnærmede verdien for 'pi' er 3,14.

3,14 er EN (rimelig dårlig) tilnærmet verdi for pi.

[gspr]

Øret bruker logaritmer til å høre... (gidder ikke å forklare)

Nei, det gjør det ikke.

 

Det rimer ikke.

Pølse sølskje... Legg i litt godvilje og sluk den "v"-en da.

Du hører forskjellen eller?

 

traktor - faktor

pølse - sølvskje

Legg i litt godvilje. Ikke uttal ordet helt korrekt.

 

Pølse - Sølsje...

Sølvskje rimer ikke på pølse i det hele tatt, og det har ingenting med om du uttaler det med eller uten v'en å gjøre... det går på -lse vs -lsje. Endret 17. oktober 2004 av gspr

[gspr]

- 4. juli 1989 hoppet en sovjetisk pilot ut av sitt MiG-23 i 130-150 meters høyde i Polen pga motorproblemer. Motoren overlevde imidlertid, og flyets autopilot holdt det stabilt. Flyet fløy egenhendig gjennom Øst-Tyskland, før det krysset inn i NATO-luftrom. Vest-tyske fly avskår det, men skjøt det ikke ned. MiG-ens autopilot beholdt retningen, og etter en stund braste det inn i et hus i Belgia, der en person omkom. Snakk om uflaks.

Endret 17. oktober 2004 av gspr

[Det Dvergiske Kaffebord]

Øret bruker logaritmer til å høre... (gidder ikke å forklare)

Nei, det gjør det ikke.

Å?, forklar meg... for det sa nemelig mattelæreren min som også er fysikk lærer. Han forklarte det temmelig enkelt, men det skal alikevel stemme.

[slez]

lol fakta ?

[nr.4]

Å?, forklar meg... for det sa nemelig mattelæreren min som også er fysikk lærer. Han forklarte det temmelig enkelt, men det skal alikevel stemme.

Desibel-skalaen, altså skalaen vi bruker til å måle lyd, er logaritmisk. Det var kanskje den han forklarte?

[gspr]

Øret bruker logaritmer til å høre... (gidder ikke å forklare)

Nei, det gjør det ikke.

Å?, forklar meg... for det sa nemelig mattelæreren min som også er fysikk lærer. Han forklarte det temmelig enkelt, men det skal alikevel stemme.

Du har totalt misforstått læreren din.

Lydstyrke er en av flere ting som måles i desibel. Desibelskalaen er logaritmisk, men det betyr ikke at øret hører med logaritmer. Da trekker du en ganske forhastet og ukorrekt slutning. Det blir som å si at siden vi bruker addisjon for å legge sammen priser på varer, så bruker man addisjon for å betale for varene. Eller som å si at man løper vha. f.eks. newtons lover.

Øret BRUKER IKKE logaritmer for å høre, men intensiteten til lydene som når øret kan beskrives på en logaritmisk skala.

 

Edit: Utrolig morsomt bilde du har i signaturen din, nr. 4. Du husker ikke tilfeldigvis hvilken avis det er fra?

Endret 17. oktober 2004 av gspr

[Jan]

Så at pulsåren kan skyte 10 meter rett opp om man kutter den. Det er feil, det er 2 m.

[Jan]

Ikke bare skøt Hitler seg selv, han tok også en giftpille (cyanid?) for å være på den sikre siden før han skøt seg.

Riktig, Cyanidkapsel. Skjøt seg og i Tinningen. Eva Braun, konen tok kun cyanid for hun ville bli ett fint lik. Hitler ble senere den dag brent. 30 april mener jeg det var.

[sluffy]

Hippopotomonstrosequippedaliofobi er frykt for lange ord

[chokke]

I thailand e rdet et sted som heter Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio­gogogoch som betyr "Saint Mary's Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of Saint Tysilio near the red cave." På engelsk

 

EDIT: bilde

Endret 18. oktober 2004 av chokke

[G2Petter]

Det er i Wales.

[ahpadt]

lanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch

 

 

        This is the name of a town in North Wales. The name translates as "The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave" in Welsh, has long claimed the fame of having the longest name in the world. However, there is a hill in New Zealand called

 

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu

 

[lindasl]

Den tilnærmede verdien for 'pi' er 3,14.

3,14 er EN (rimelig dårlig) tilnærmet verdi for pi.

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651328230664709384460955058223172535940812848111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196..

 

Resten finner du her.

[DeathBound]

Tularemia:

What Is It?

Also known as "rabbit fever" or "deer fly fever," and caused by the francisella tularensis bacterium, tularemia is one of the most infectious diseases known, making it a strong bioweapon candidate. Although it's neither easy to disseminate nor lethal, it takes only the inhalation of a single tularemia bacterium to cause an infection. Tularemia is a rural disease and occurs in all states except Hawaii. It is widespread among animals, who are also a common source of transmission. Approximately 200 cases of tularemia in humans are reported annually in the United States, mostly in persons living in the south-central and western states. Tularemia is not contagious.

On a historical note, Ken Alibek, a former top Soviet bioweapons scientist, maintains that an outbreak of tularemia among German troops during the 1942 Battle of Stalingrad resulted from the deliberate spraying of the agent by the Soviet defenders.

How Is It Spread?

This agent can be transmitted either through aerosol form or via inhalation. The natural ulceroglandular form of this infection is typically contracted through the bite of an infected tick or fly, or when infected meat has direct contact with an open wound. Tularemia infection can also occur when someone eats undercooked, infected meat.

What Are the Symptoms of Exposure?

If released in aerosol form, inhaled tularemia could cause severe pneumonia. Symptoms would include shortness of breath, coughing up bloody mucus and chest pain. The usual incubation period for inhaled tularemia is 3-5 days, but can be as short as one day or as long as two weeks. Initial symptoms include fever, chills, coughing, joint pain, headaches and weakness - much like that of the common cold or influenza.

A small percentage of those infected with inhaled tularemia will develop the typhoidal form of the bacterium instead of pneumonia, which hones in on the circulatory system instead of just the respiratory system and may lead to death if not promptly treated. This type of illness is characterized by fever, extreme exhaustion and weight loss and the fatality rate of those untreated is 35 percent.

Ulceroglandular tularemia causes an ulcer at the infection site and later swelling of regional lymph nodes. This form has a lower fatality rate than pneumonic or typhoidal tularemia.

How Is It Treated?

Tularemia is easily treatable with antibiotics, as long as victims get treatment quickly. A vaccine exists, but is currently administered only to individuals who work with the bacterium. The vaccine takes about two weeks to fully protect a human being and isn't completely effective against the inhaled form of tularemia. Another vaccine to protect against inhaled tularemia is being developed.

After potential exposure or diagnosis, early treatment is recommended with an antibiotic from the tetracycline (such as doxycycline) or fluoroquinolone (such as ciprofloxacin) class, which are taken orally, or the antibiotics streptomycin or gentamicin, which are given intramuscularly or intravenously.

Who Has It/Where Can It Be Found?

Isolating and growing the tularemia bacterium takes a lot of experience and scientific knowledge. The former Soviet Union, Japan and the United States all developed the bacterium as a bioweapon, and the former U.S.S.R. continued its research into the 1990s. Many of those supplies and scientists haven't yet been located. Tularemia does occur naturally in rodents.

Anthrax:

 

What Is It?

Scientifically known as Bacillus anthracis, this rod-shaped bacterium infects humans through the respiratory system, skin or digestive tract. While it is not contagious, depending on the method of infection, anthrax can be highly lethal. Simply made, anthrax is not easy to disseminate.

Weaponization of anthrax -- the more sophisticated process -- is needed to easily disseminate it. During this process, the bacterium is refined so it's reduced to its most infective size. This allows it to travel long distances in the air and to be inhaled.

Inhalation anthrax has a fatality rate of 90 percent.

Currently researched at more than 2,000 U.S. labs, it can remain in a dormant spore form for decades before becoming active again.

Germany tried to use anthrax as a weapon during World War I. During World War II, most warring parties had biowarfare programs; Japan used anthrax in China. During the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union set up large biowarfare programs. Although the United States dismantled its biowarfare program in 1969, the Soviets carried on, and in 1979, an anthrax leak from a Soviet weapons plant killed more than 60 people.

The American public learned a few lessons about anthrax in October 2001, following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Four contaminated letters to the New York Post, NBC's Tom Brokaw, then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont carried a more potent form of anthrax. Confirmed anthrax cases at American Media in Florida and at the New York offices of CBS and ABC suggest that letters were also sent to these offices. Twenty-three people contracted anthrax from these letters -- 11 postal workers and 8 media workers. Three other victims in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York City also died from exposure. To this day, there are no suspects.

How Is It Spread?

In natural-acquired cases, organisms usually gain entrance through skin wounds, causing a localized infection, but they may also be inhaled or ingested. Intentional release by terrorist groups would probably involve the aerosol route, as the spore form of anthrax is very stable and ideal for this type of transmission. However, as seen in the fall of 2001, anthrax can also be used as a weapon in the powder form, sent through the mail or through other means.

What Are the Symptoms of Exposure?

Inhalation anthrax -- Once inhaled, the tiny anthrax spores -- less than one-twentieth the diameter of a human hair, enter the lungs' air sacs, where blood is oxygenated. It's not known exactly how many spores are needed to infect a human. From the lungs, the infection spreads to the lymph nodes in the chest, and within hours or days, the bacteria begin producing deadly toxin.

There are two phases of inhalation anthrax infection, with a short recovery-like period sometimes following the first phase: the first causes flu-like symptoms such as fever, nausea, vomiting, aches and pains and fatigue, which usually appear in one to seven days after exposure; and the second includes respiratory distress and failure, shock and sometimes death, and is usually reached within two to four days of the onset of symptoms.

Cutaneous anthrax -- infects humans though the skin or through the digestive system. Cutaneous infections occur when open wounds or cuts come in contact with the anthrax bacterium. A visible infection, such as sores or black scabs, appears one to seven days after exposure.

Gastrointestinal anthrax -- results from ingestion of meat contaminated with anthrax bacteria, causes symptoms within two to five days and includes stomach pain, diarrhea, fever and septicemia (bacteria in the blood).

How Is It Treated?

Inhalation anthrax -- long-term treatment with antibiotics can reduce the 90 percent fatality rate to 30 percent. Treatment is most successful if begun before the toxin is released.

An anthrax vaccine exists but is only effective if the first of six inoculations is given at least four weeks before exposure. Vaccines are currently only given to those considered at an increased risk of exposure, such as lab workers or military personnel. It consists of three injections given two weeks apart, followed by three more injections at six, 12 and 18 months. Annual booster injections are recommended to maintain immunity.

Ciprofloxacin is the best-known antibiotic, but penicillin and doxycycline have also been effective against the forms in the mailed letters. Amoxocillan can also be used. Many of these antibiotics are available in pharmacies with a prescription. A May 2002 study said that a treatment involving shots of vaccine plus a 60-day regimen of several antibiotics is more effective than simply taking Cipro.

Some scientists say a special enzyme developed by Rockefeller University biologists may also be an effective antidote, if injected quickly enough. But more tests must be completed before the enzyme can be used as a drug.

Cutaneous anthrax -- treatable with antibiotics.

Gastrointestinal anthrax -- has about a 50 percent fatality rate. Antibiotic treatment greatly reduces this number.

The federal government only has enough vaccine for about 4,000 people, and it requires six painful shots over 18 months. In 1997, the Pentagon decided to vaccinate all military personnel, but in June 2002, the Bush administration shifted course, deciding to vaccinate some troops while stockpiling more vaccine in America to prepare for possible domestic attacks. Having administered the six-shot series to about 69,000 troops, the U.S. government now plans to vaccinate only those troops who spend at least 15 days a year in high-threat areas such as the Persian Gulf, the Korean Peninsula and possibly Afghanistan.

Who Has It/Where Can It Be Found?

Anthrax is widely available and is even naturally occurring in domestic livestock and certain wildlife. It's currently studied at more than 2,000 U.S. facilities. It's a bacteria, often found naturally in the soil as close to home as rural Texas, Oklahoma and near the Mississippi. It's also made in research and military labs.

In a remote corner of the Nevada desert, in a highly restricted area once used to test nuclear bombs, the U.S. government has been running a secret experiment called Project Bachus -- a small germ warfare factory. U.S. officials say they built it to better understand how to detect similar operations in places like Iraq or Afghanistan or even by terrorists here at home. Technicians grew several pounds of a harmless bacterium with characteristics similar to deadly anthrax.

Government officials say the United States no longer has a bioweapons program, although the military continues to use anthrax for defensive purposes such as vaccine development. More than a dozen other countries may have programs that could make anthrax, including big powers -- Russia, China, India; unfriendly countries -- Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, North Korea, Cuba; and American allies -- Israel, Egypt, South Africa, South Korea. More than 40 germ banks in the United States and around the world supply anthrax for scientific research.

Botulinum Toxin:

 

What Is It?

Produced by the bacterium clostridium botulinum, this agent is the most poisonous substance known to man. It can strike humans in two forms not relevant to bioterror: infantile botulism, which occurs when children less than 1-year-old ingest large amounts of the spore form; and wound-type botulism, which is very rare and occurs when an open wound comes into contact with the toxin. The high toxicity of botulinum toxin, its wide availability and the likely need for long-term medical care for victims make it an effective bioweapon, but it must be highly refined to work as an aerosol. About 60 percent of those left untreated from ingestional botulism die.

How Is It Spread?

The toxin can cause disease in humans through ingestion and inhalation, and can be spread via aerosol dissemination or the intentional contamination of foods or drinks. Contamination is the most likely method of attack, since trying to infect people via inhalation methods would be harder to carry out. The toxin is unstable in the environment and requires high levels of technical expertise to make it suitable for aerosol release. Botulism is not contagious; only those who ingest or inhale the main toxin will become ill.

What Are the Symptoms of Exposure?

Someone who ingests the toxin will have their nerve transmission affected and could have their muscles paralyzed. If someone eats something that contains the toxin, the first symptoms of paralysis appear within 12-36 hours after ingestion. Other symptoms include double vision, drooping eyelids, dry mouth and difficulty swallowing and talking. Paralysis spreads to the face and neck then works its way downward to the rest of the body, often leading to death from respiratory failure. Paralysis and disfiguring blisters are often the end result.

How Is It Treated?

A vaccine exists but is currently only used for lab workers and troops deployed to high-risk areas. It is in short supply and is very painful to receive. It's also not effective against all forms of the toxin.

A commercially available antitoxin, if given soon after a victim is diagnosed, can stop the spread of paralysis but won't reverse it. Other treatment, such as respiratory support, may be needed to keep someone alive. In general, paralysis will diminish eventually.

Physicians may try to remove contaminated food still in the gut by inducing vomiting or by using enemas. Wounds should be treated to remove the source of the toxin-producing bacteri, usually using surgical methods.

Who Has It/Where Can It Be Found?

Clostridium botulinum occurs naturally in soil. The Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo couldn't produce an effective aerosol form of the toxin, although it had significant funding and scientific experts working on it. The Soviets also devoted resources to the weaponization of the toxin, and some supplies of it, as well as the scientists who produced them, are unaccounted for.

Iraq, North Korea, Iran, and Syria are believed to have developed botulinum toxin as a weapon. After the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq told U.N. weapons inspectors that it had produced 19,000 liters of concentrated botulinum toxin - enough, theoretically, to kill everyone on earth three times over.

Plague:

 

What Is It?

Caused by infection with the rod-shaped bacterium yersinia pestis, plague is one of the most deadly and potentially effective bioweapons. About 14 percent, or 1 in 7, of all plague cases in the United States are fatal. There are three forms - pneumonic plague, bubonic and septicemic plague. Pneumonic - the most harmful of the three and the one most likely to be used in an attack - has a lethality rate of almost 100 percent if untreated and 50 percent if treated. This form infects more easily than the other forms and is the only contagious form.

Millions of people in Europe died from plague in the Middle Ages, when human homes and places of work were inhabited by flea-infested rats. Human outbreaks occur in areas where housing and sanitation conditions are poor, in rural communities or in cities. During World War II, the Japanese army spread bubonic plague by dropping infected fleas over China.

The last U.S. urban plague epidemic occurred in Los Angeles in 1924-25. Since then, human plague in the United States has occurred as mostly scattered cases in rural areas - an average of 10 to 20 persons each year. The World Health Organization reports 1,000 to 3,000 cases of plague every year. In North America, plague is found in certain animals and their fleas from the Pacific Coast to the Great Plains, and from southwestern Canada to Mexico. Most human cases in the U.S. occur in two regions: 1) northern New Mexico, northern Arizona and southern Colorado; and 2) California, southern Oregon and far western Nevada. Plague also exists in Africa, Asia and South America.

While most outbreaks are of the bubonic type, outbreaks of pneumonic plague can become epidemics and cause public panic and chaos.

While plague is highly contagious and causes high fatality rates, its threat as a bioweapon may be lessened given its instability in the environment and the degree of technical sophistication it takes to refine it and spread it quickly and effectively.

How Is It Spread?

Bubonic plague - spread when people are bit by a rodent flea that is carrying the plague bacterium or by handling an infected animal. Contraction can also occur as a result of direct contact with infected tissues or fluids from handling sick or dead animals and with respiratory droplets from cats and humans with pneumonic plague. Bubonic plague is not contagious.

Pneumonic plague - results from the inhalation of the bacteria into the lungs or from the spread of infection of the septicemic form. Transmission can happen when a person with plague pneumonia coughs droplets containing the plague bacteria into air that is breathed by a non-infected person. Therefore, pneumonic plague is highly contagious.

Septicemic plague - occurs when the plague infection enters the bloodstream, leading to internal hemorrhaging and, without fast treatment, rapid death. This form is not contagious.

In the case of a bioterror attack, plague bacterium may also be released in an aerosolized form into the air. Another option for would-be evildoers is to release plague-infested rats or fleas into crowded areas.

What Are the Symptoms of Exposure?

Bubonic plague infects the lymphatic system. It causes enlarged, tender lymph nodes, fever, chills and extreme exhaustion. The swollen gland is called a "bubo" (hence the term "bubonic plague"). This type of plague should be suspected especially if a potential victim has a history of possible exposure to infected rodents, rabbits or fleas. A person usually becomes ill with bubonic plague two to six days after being infected and may even expel bloody sputum. If plague patients are not given specific antibiotic therapy, the disease can progress rapidly to death.

When bubonic plague is left untreated, plague bacteria invade the bloodstream. As the plague bacteria multiply in the bloodstream, they spread rapidly throughout the body and cause a severe and often fatal condition.

Septicemic plague causes fever, chills, prostration, abdominal pain, shock and bleeding into skin and other organs.

Pneumonic plague causes fever, chills, cough-producing bloody mucus, difficulty breathing, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. Rapid shock and death will take place if not treated early. Symptoms appear two to four days after it's inhaled into the lungs. A full pulmonary infection follows the first symptoms, and death can follow within a day or two if the victim is not treated early.

How Is It Treated?

Today, modern antibiotics are effective against plague, but if an infected person is not treated promptly, the disease is likely to cause illness or death. No viable plague vaccine exists.

Pneumonic plague requires antibiotics within 24 hours of exposure.

According to treatment experts, a patient diagnosed with suspected plague should be hospitalized and medically isolated. Antibiotic treatment should begin as soon as possible after laboratory specimens are taken. Streptomycin is the antibiotic of choice. Gentamicin is used when streptomycin is not available. Tetracyclines and chloramphenicol are also effective.

Persons who have been in close contact with a plague patient, particularly a patient with plague pneumonia, should be identified and evaluated. The U.S. Public Health Service requires that all cases of suspected plague be reported immediately to local and state health departments and that the diagnosis be confirmed by the CDC. As required by the International Health Regulations, the CDC reports all U.S. plague cases to the World Health Organization.

Who Has It/Where Can It Be Found?

Labs around the world study plague bacteria. Although the samples are usually protected, there are no real guarantees that the safeguards are 100 percent foolproof. Plague was one biowarfare agent intensely studied and produced by the hundreds of tons by the Soviet Union before Biopreparat was terminated. Not only is the fate of that stockpile unknown, but so is the present locations of many of the scientists who helped make the plague a weapon.

More recently, Iraq and North Korea are thought to have conducted bioweapons research with plague bacteria.

Smallpox:

 

What Is It?

Scientifically known as variola, smallpox is among the few contagious bioterror agents. The last naturally occurring case was in Somalia in 1977 and the World Health Organization declared it eradicated in 1980. Symptoms are severe and permanently disfiguring. To pass the disease on to someone else, direct face-to-face contact is required. It falls somewhere between tuberculosis and chickenpox in its level of contagiousness.

Smallpox is lethal in about 30 percent of all cases.

Two other forms of smallpox are historically rare but usually fatal:

Purpura Variolosa, or hemorrhagic-type smallpox, and Flat-type smallpox. These two variations usually develop in 3 percent and 5 percent, respectively, of people infected with variola major. Variola minor, a variation of the smallpox virus, is less severe than the major strain, and kills about 1 percent of those infected.

After the anthrax attacks in the United States in the fall of 2001, the U.S. government ordered production of enough smallpox vaccine to vaccinate the entire U.S. population should it be needed.

How Is It Spread?

Infection is caused by the inhalation of small fluid droplets, called aerosols, or by direct contact with lesions or contaminated objects.

The smallpox virus is difficult to transmit artificially as an aerosol agent and can be easily killed by a number of household disinfectants and sunlight.

What Are the Symptoms of Exposure?

This bioterror agent has an incubation period of seven to 17 days, with the first symptoms usually appearing 12 to 14 days after exposure. The first symptoms a victim will experience include high fever, backache, headache, fatigue and physical collapse. These ailments, as well as extreme physical exhaustion and unable to do much of anything, also reduce the virus's transmission rate.

People become contagious when they have severe aches and pains and exhaustion and find it hard to get out of bed. Contagiousness begins only with the appearance of a rash, generally two or three days after the initial onset of symptoms. This rash will be in the form of pink dots in the mouth and throat and spread to the face and arms, then to the torso and legs. The dots eventually become lesions, filling with pus and becoming painful. Within eight to nine days of getting the rash, scabs will form over the lesions, and will fall off around 14 days after the first symptoms appear. Victims will be contagious until all scabs fall off. Disfiguring scars are the result.

Purpura Variolosa causes severe loss of blood into the skin and internal organs.

Flat-type smallpox causes slow-developing soft lesions that don't rise above the skin's surface.

How Is It Treated?

No definitive treatment exists for smallpox. Vaccination within four days of infection can prevent or mitigate the disease's effects. Containment and targeted vaccination can control and eventually eradicate the disease.

The smallpox vaccine is made up of live vaccinia virus and has the highest rate of adverse side effects of any commonly used vaccine. Estimates in 1960 showed that if the entire U.S. population were given the vaccine, about 1,500 would suffer side effects and 300 would die from them. Now, however, more of the human population is susceptible to complications. People who have HIV/AIDS, or have experienced medical procedures such as chemotherapy or transplant surgery increases the chance they will suffer complications from the vaccine.

Vaccinia immune globulin is a treatment that can lessen severe reactions to the vaccine. The antiviral medication Cidofovir can also treat bad reactions.

The United States has adopted a policy of vaccinating selected health care workers and first responders who would administer smallpox vaccinations in the event of an outbreak. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. government has boosted its stockpile of the vaccines, which have significant side effects, to cover the entire U.S. population in case of an emergency.

Who Has It/Where Can It Be Found?

After 1980, smallpox samples were supposed to be stored at CDC facilities in Atlanta and at a Russian lab called Vector in a town called Koltsovo. But it was later discovered that the then-Soviet Union had produced and tested about 20 tons of weaponized smallpox for use by the Soviet military. The program's smallpox and other biowarfare agents have been unaccounted for. This concerns the international community, since it's possible former Soviet scientists looking to get out of that country could take offers from nations that sponsor terrorism or terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda to hand over the samples or information on where they are.

As of November 2002, intelligence reports show that four nations have in hand unauthorized stockpiles of the virus: Iraq, North Korea, France and Russia.

It is feared that Russia lacks the security to prevent samples of the virus, or the expertise on how to develop it, from being sold on the world market. In fact, according to a 1994 report from the Defense Intelligence Agency, both Iraq and North Korea sought and received smallpox technology from the Russians in the early 1990s.

In December 2002, it was reported that the CIA was investigating an informant's accusation that Iraq obtained a particularly virulent strain of smallpox from a Russian scientist who worked in a smallpox lab at the Research Institute for Viral Preparations in Moscow during Soviet times.

A natural outbreak of smallpox occurred in Iraq in 1971, and again in 1972. It is possible the Iraqis isolated the virus then and kept a sample for themselves for future use. In 1994, U.N. weapons inspectors examining Iraqi medical facilities uncovered an industrial-sized freeze dryer, the type used by microbiologists to extend the life of germ samples. It was labeled in Arabic "smallpox machine." Iraqi officials claimed the freeze dryer was meant for the smallpox vaccine, not the virus.

Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers (VHFs):

 

What Is It?

VHFs refer to a group of illnesses that are caused by several distinct families of viruses. In general, the term "viral hemorrhagic fever" is used to describe a severe multi-system syndrome, where multiple organ systems in the body are affected.

VHFs include four families of viruses: filiviruses such as the Ebola and Marburg viruses, arenaviruses such as Lassa, bunyavirus such as Rift Valley Fever and flaviviruses such as yellow fever and dengue. They can all cause serious, life-threatening illnesses. Some, including Ebola, Marburg and Lassa, are contagious. Although the Ebola virus gained notoriety in various films such as Outbreak and books, VHFs aren't expected to be prime bioweapon candidates since people die so quickly from them and often don't get a chance to infect others.

During World War II, the Japanese army fed botulinum toxin to prisoners of war in Manchuria, with lethal results.

How Is It Spread?

VHFs naturally occur in humans only after contact with an infected insect, rodent or larger mammal. Transmission can happen via touching fecal matter, receiving an insect bite or handling contaminated meat. It's possible VHFs can be manufactured for aerosol dissemination but the bacterium generally don't fare well in this form.

What Are the Symptoms of Exposure?

Characteristically, the overall vascular system is damaged, and the body's ability to regulate itself is impaired. These symptoms are often accompanied by hemorrhage (bleeding); however, the bleeding is itself rarely life-threatening. While some types of hemorrhagic fever viruses can cause relatively mild illnesses, many of these viruses cause severe, life-threatening disease.

All types in severe cases can cause hemorrhagic syndromes that cause severe internal and external bleeding in places such as internal organs, under the skin and from the eyes, nose, mouth and ears. Symptoms generally include high fever, dizziness, muscle aches and exhaustion. The first symptoms may be felt from two days to three weeks after exposure. Advanced symptoms include shock, nervous system malfunction, seizures and coma. Fatality rates range from 90 percent for Ebola to 1 percent for Lassa.

How Is It Treated?

Treatment is available for some VHFs, but not all. In the event of an outbreak, routine infection control procedures, isolation and decontamination are usually enough to stop transmission. Treatments vary depending on which virus a victim has. No treatments or vaccines exist for Ebola or Marburg, but therapy can prevent shock and help organs function. Antiviral drug ribavirin can treat some VHFs fairly well if given early on. A yellow fever vaccine is available. Other treatments are under development.

Who Has It/Where Can It Be Found?

The most worrisome VHFs, such as Marburg and Ebola, are hard to acquire from the wild because their natural host is unknown and outbreaks are rare. VHFs are studied in some labs, mainly high-security ones. Research on Ebola and several others was done by the Soviet Union before its biowarfare program was dismantled.

Experts warn that because microbe collections in Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Uzbekistan are not adequately secured, terrorist groups or states might be able to steal or otherwise obtain weaponized strains of plague, tularemia and VHFs.

During a 1992 trip to Zaire, operatives from the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo tried unsuccessfully to acquire samples of the Ebola virus, and some experts think that an Iraqi viral strain code-named "Blue Nile" may be Ebola.