There are many diseases around the world that terrorists could use for biological attacks. Two diseases that could be used for biological attacks are Anthrax and Smallpox. Anthrax is a disease caused by bacterium and Smallpox is a disease caused by a virus.

Although it is rare in the United States to get Anthrax, It is still a very dangerous disease. People can get Anthrax if they come into contact with infected animals or contaminated animal products. After exposure to infected animals or contaminated animal products, Anthrax may take about a week to develop. Some symptoms of Anthrax would be pain in the chest or muscles, blisters on skin, fever, difficulty breathing, coughing, headache, itching, nausea, and sore throat.

Smallpox was a very dangerous disease back in the day that caused the death of many Native Americans around the time the Americas were discovered. People can no longer get infected with Smallpox because it has been completely eradicated. Some symptoms of Smallpox would be pain around the body, widespread skin rash, fever, headache, vomiting, and diarrhoea.

Although Bacteria and viruses seem similar, they are not. Viruses and bacteria have many differences between each other.  For example, bacteria is considered to be a living organism, but viruses are not. Bacteria has DNA and RNA floating freely around and in also has a cell wall and a cell membrane.  Virus is just DNA or RNA inside of a coat of protein. Another example would be that unlike bacteria, viruses need a living host like people, animals, or plants to reproduce. When a virus invades, it hijacks the cells in your body and tells them to produce more. Without a host, it won’t be able to survive.

The body has ways to protect itself against diseases and harmful pathogens. The body’s first line of defense against diseases is the skin, tears,and mucus. The skin prevents pathogens from getting in the body, tears prevent it from getting in the eyes, and mucus prevents in from getting in the nose. If pathogens still manage to get through the first line of defense, the second line of defense steps in which is the immune system. The immune system attacks organisms that invade body systems and cause disease. The white blood cells in the body produces these things called antibodies to stop the pathogen. The body also produces phagocytes which are cells that chews up and absorbs the pathogens that are traveling around the bloodstream.

Vaccinations really helps us fight off and protect ourselves from diseases. A vaccination is a treatment to help us gain immunity to a disease. Vaccinations are made with weakened forms of a virus or a disease so that the immune system can remember it and defend against it next time. Vaccines are very useful in protecting us against dangerous diseases that would normally be hard to fight against on our own.

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