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Secondary Biological Agents
In addition to the agents described in detail in individual pages,there are a number of agents that although less likely to be used as weapons, are also of concern. These agents are briefly summarized below. These include agents that the Australia Group has included in categories such as "Warning List" and "Inclusion in Awareness raising Guidelines" rather than the "Core Lists" and includes agents directed primarily against livestock and or plants rather than man.
In addition, there are a number of agents that have been tested or thought or are being thought about for agent use, for example infectious conjunctivitis virus (by Iraq) and hepatitis A virus (by South Africa), and simulants. All of these deserve some coverage, but not necessarily as much as anthrax, smallpox, or the plague have earned.
Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS and Biological Warfare.
Sex has always loomed large in the life of the soldier, moreso when on campaign,
and brothels of greater or lesser permanence have always appeared to serve their
needs. The brothel and the freelance prostitute have always brought with them
at least the risk of syphilis, gonorrhoea and, for the last 20 years, AIDS. Armed
forces have always lost men to these diseases despite medical supervision of soldiers
("short arm inspections") and monitoring of brothels. Given this ease
of transmission, are they likely to have been used as biological weapons? Probably
not. The reason that these diseases are transmitted sexually is that the organisms
are too frail to be transmitted in any other way. They cannot survive outside
the body and would die almost immediately if dispersed as aerosols or powders.
This leaves only the prostitute as vector. There have been anecdotal reports of infected prostitutes being imported to brothels, but none that have been confirmed. Syphilis and gonorrhea have always been agressively neutral. On the other hand, Soviet biological weaponeers are reported to have considered the use of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the causative agent of AIDS as a weapon but decided it was unsuitable.
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