By Mupakamiso Makaya

THE cumulative rate of occurrence and recurrence of epidemics and pandemics, such as Ebola and smallpox, simultaneous with the continental (Africa) as well global increase in terrorism, increases the potential for disease predicaments to be exploited as political arsenal by terrorist groups, either directly or indirectly.

The epoch of globalisation has fostered voluminous revolutions to the global health system, facilitating interconnectedness of health issues.

Even terrorists with more robust health systems are putting in bioterrorism preparedness mechanisms to counteract potential attacks.

According to the UN, biological weapons are complex systems that disseminate disease-causing organisms or toxins to harm or kill humans, animals or plants. They generally consist of two parts — a weaponised agent and a delivery mechanism.

There are two main subsets of bioterrorism, viz  agro-terrorism and food terrorism.

The nexus between terrorism and epidemics are not novel.

Military leaders in the Middle Ages recognised that victims of infectious diseases could become weapons.

During the siege of Caffa, a well-fortified Genoese-controlled seaport (now Feodosia, Ukraine), in 1346, the attacking Tartar force experienced a plague and transformed their calamity into an opportunity by hurling the cadavers of their deceased into the city, thus instigating a plague epidemic in the city. 

Reading from the same diabolical historical template of employing inhuman tactics, the Rhodesians employed the same desperate gimmicks.

Sizeable evidence suggests the existence of ruthless biological warfare programme in Rhodesia, being executed by the regime’s CIO, Selous Scouts and apartheid South Africans.

They, however, lost the fight; the results are on the wall.

Again they will lose this economic war they consequently declared on December 21 2001(ZDERA) and February 2002 respectively. 

It’s history repeating itself but that’s a story for another day. 

The chemical and biological agents used by the CIO in the field included thallium, organophosphates poisons, warfarin and anthrax bacterium, to name but a few bacteriological agents. It is on record that thallium was injected into canned meat and through the use of quasi ops methods, the diseased meat was given to our freedom fighters who were made to believe it was coming from friendly forces. 

Bioterrorism is now a prospect and will be a possibility. 

We are witnessing the rampant violation of the Geneva convention on Bio and Chemical weapons (1972), which was further reinforced in 1993 by prohibiting the development, production, stockpiling and the subsequent movement of those weapons. Numerous signatory nations of the BWC partook in undertakings proscribed by the conventions. 

The violations clearly validate the futility of the convention as the limited methodology for eradicating biological weapons and preventing further proliferation. 

Along with state-sponsored and military-related bio warfare and bioterrorism agendas, private and civilian groups have developed, distributed and used biological and chemical weapons; the majority of these groups are being sponsored by Uncle Sam. 

One incident was the intentional contamination of salad bars in restaurants in Oregon by the Rajneeshee cult during late September 1984. 

A total of 751 cases of severe enteritis were reported, and salmonella typhimurium was identified as the causative organism. Forty-five victims were hospitalised during this outbreak.

Many of the Selous Scouts, Rhodesia’s elite counter-insurgency force, experienced in using CBW for counter-insurgency, joined apartheid South Africa’s special forces and police after the political transition in Zimbabwe in 1980. The Rhodesian CBW programme has been re-counted by a former top Rhodesian agent, Henrik Ellert, and by Tom Mangold in ‘Plague Wars’. 

We will never forget how the unapologetic Rhodesians planted anthrax spores in grain fed to cattle in liberated zones during the liberation struggle, instigating an anthrax epidemic that killed 10 000 cattle in Zimbabwe in the early 1980s. 

This deceitful bout was published in 1999 in Plague Wars, a 26-paged book.  

It is suspected that anthrax and cholera outbreaks were linked to past Rhodesians and their Western cohorts’ nefarious activities. 

It has to be emphasised that above mentioned diseases fall in classes of bioterrorism.

Uncle Sam is a well-known warmonger.

The Centres for Disease Control (CDC) has a variety of ongoing research and preparedness related to bioterrorism. Most of CDC’s activities to counter bioterrorism are focused on building and expanding public health infrastructure at the Federal, State and local levels in the US. 

The CDC and Prevention established an office in Zimbabwe in 2000, with an initial focus on HIV interventions and health systems strengthening through the Leadership and Investment for Fighting an Epidemic (LIFE) Initiative. 

In my next instalment l will give a list of despicable things that this so called CDC has been doing. 

Remember it was the same CDC that made deliberate blunders during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Also remember Uncle Sam is well known for creating crises and later offering to clear the mess.

Clinicians, first responders as well as the public should be acquainted with epidemiology and control measures to counter any such acts.

Bioterrorists use enzootic livestock diseases and emerging zoonotic diseases (diseases that can be transmitted between animal and human populations) and these epitomise a national security threat.

Biological agents, in wrong hands, are lethal and serious cause for concern on human population, livestock as well as plants.