Science Snippet

In the 1950s and early 1960s, the Pentagon developed an arsenal of biological agents that might be used in retaliation to a preemptive strike by another country. One of these agents was a small bacterium named Coxiella burnetii, which was weaponized to be used as an incapacitant. The bacterium causes a disorder called Q fever in livestock and other mammals, including man. Inhalation of airborne bacteria can, in many people, bring on a fever up to 105 F, severe headache, chills or sweats, and nausea. If weaponized C. burnetii were broadcast over a populated area, much of the population could be incapacitated. Although the death rate is only two percent, those who have Q fever may wish they were dead, for the fever can last a couple of weeks.

Now the Pentagon and the Communicable Disease Center are concerned that a rogue nation or terrorist group might develop the ability to weaponize C. burnetii, and are taking steps to try to develop a vaccine for the fever. Although the U.S. dropped its biological warfare program in 1969, all the current unrest in the world brings back the specter of Q fever. (usatoday.com; USA Today, Nov. 18, 2013; cdc.gov/qfever/stats, Nov. 20, 2013)