“In the Second World War, Imperial Japan dropped thousands of plague-infested fl

—“In the Second World War, Imperial Japan dropped thousands of plague-infested fleas on Chinese cities.

Developed at its covert “Unit 731” biological and chemical warfare facility, these attacks are believed to have killed around 400,000 civilians.

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There are antibiotics available to counter the disease, but they are ineffective if not administered within a day of the onset of symptoms. With most doctors having little experience of the disease, it is unlikely it would be identified before it’s too late.

And given the symptoms are easily mistaken for that of a common flu, he said it was imperative a vaccine is developed.

The window for antibiotic treatment is very narrow, so it is usually between 20 – 24 hours after the appearance of the symptoms of the disease. If you delay the treatment then you will still see people dying.

A HISTORY OF PLAGUE AS A BIOLOGICAL WEAPON

Given the virality of the plague, history is littered with instances of it being used as a biological weapon.

Historical accounts from the far east describe it being used by the Mongols, Huns and rampaging Chinese armies to infect adversaries.This involved catapulting infected animals or corpses of plague victims into besieged cities, or dumping them into water supplies to infect enemies’ drinking water.

During the Second World War, Imperial Japan pioneered warheads filled with disease-ridden rats, mice, clothing and fleas which it dropped on Chinese civilians.The disease had been developed at the so-called “Unit 731” facility in northeast China, which was the site of some of Japan’s most horrendous war crimes. An estimated 250,000 people were subjected to experimentation at the site.

Following the war, both the US and Russia harnessed the technology – much of which was based on Japanese and German research – to use plague as a weapon.Studies have since revealed the USSR focused on developing “aerosolized” forms of the disease – thereby removing the need for it to be transmitted via infected fleas or animals.And despite being a signatory to a convention banning the development of such weapons, Russia was found to still be creating the weapons as late as the 1990s when former USSR microbiologist Ken Alibek defected to the US.

The plague is physically transmitted, just like Ebola, so therefore simple quarantine measures are effective. If this scenario was to actually work, then we would have seen epidemic level plaque outbreaks after the dark ages when we learned it was spread by microbe infected rats and fleas. There have not been any of that type of outbreak that wasn’t quickly quarantined.

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