Bioterrorism: Past and Present

The first significant attack of bioterrorism in the United States occured in 1984 in a town called The Dalles in Oregon. In what eventually became known as the Rajneeshee Bioterror Attack, over 750 people suffered from food poisoning from salmonella that was intentionally put in salad bars in ten local restauraunts. The motive behind the attack was to incapacitate enough of the population so that they could not vote in the upcoming county election. This way the candidate the culprits supported would have a better chance of winning. More recently, in the year 2001, there was a series of anthrax attacks in the United States (symptoms of anthrax located in flowchart below). This resulted in the death of 5 people and 17 others were infected. The anthrax was mailed in envelopes to news media offices and 2 US senators. Bioterrorism is a truly terrifying thing because it is so mysterious and major damage can be done in a short amount of time and with minimal effort. As technology advances, so does the potential for new and unstoppable bioterrorism agents to be developed and released. These two accounts are probably the most well known bouts of bioterrorism in the United States today.