Jeanne Guillemin
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520222045
- eISBN:
- 9780520927100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520222045.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
Anthrax predates back to the start of civilization and is a disease that kills livestock and affects humans with black spots. This chapter introduces a research team—including the author—which is ...
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Anthrax predates back to the start of civilization and is a disease that kills livestock and affects humans with black spots. This chapter introduces a research team—including the author—which is sent to Sverdlovsk, Moscow, the location of the worst anthrax epidemic that has been recorded in a modern industrial nation, and explains how an anthrax infection starts and how humans can contract the disease. It then focuses on the possibility to use anthrax as a biological weapon, and introduces the Biological Weapons Convention, which bans the development, production, stockpiling, and retaining of biological agents or toxins.Less
Anthrax predates back to the start of civilization and is a disease that kills livestock and affects humans with black spots. This chapter introduces a research team—including the author—which is sent to Sverdlovsk, Moscow, the location of the worst anthrax epidemic that has been recorded in a modern industrial nation, and explains how an anthrax infection starts and how humans can contract the disease. It then focuses on the possibility to use anthrax as a biological weapon, and introduces the Biological Weapons Convention, which bans the development, production, stockpiling, and retaining of biological agents or toxins.
