In modern terms, the changing of terrorism has seen the introduction of increased threats that are more sophisticated and dangerous. Security experts and government officials have long fueled fears of biological terrorist attacks especially as the number of the terror organizations surge. Nevertheless, in the 17 years since the coordinated terrorist attacks of 9/11, no bioterrorist attack has come to culmination but not from lack of trying rather because of a myriad of other extenuating factors.
Terrorists have tried to launch biological attacks, but their attempts have been plagued with failures. In fact, terrorists are more likely to cause a local epidemic by accident than to succeed in launching a sophisticated biological attack. Historically, there have been several high-profile bio-terrorists attacks that failed on a fundamental, planning and even execution level and risked causing would be lethal attacks in their locality.
Notably, The Japanese religious cult Aum Shinrikyo, which experimented extensively with toxins such as botulin and anthrax, came the closest to launching a fatal bioterrorism attack. But, their extensive planning equipped with tools and professionals the close to ten attempts at an attack did not manage to kill not even a single person. Al Qaeda, for example, has included bioterrorism planning in its training and plotting from the late 1990s onward but even with recruiting major scientists the attacks never materialized.
Accidents have marred most attempts at a bioterrorist attack as evidenced by Forty Al Qaeda jihadis in an Algeria-based cell, who all died of the plague that they may have been experimenting on. Had the said jihadists interacted with locals upon expose, they would have spread a plague across rural Algeria where the public health system is lacking.
Safety precautions are crucial to a government in ensuring that the public and health infrastructure is adeptly equipped to deal with a pandemic in the unlikely event of a bioterrorist attack. Public health is most vital defense that a country can have to deter a bio-weapon attack as it would have a mechanism in place that would treat the sick inoculate rest of the population and end the epidemic before it costs lives. Thus, nations with a domestic terrorist presence should invest in their public health systems to minimize the effects of an accidental terrorist-caused outbreak. Promoting public awareness of symptoms associated with the diseases terrorists may be using is essential to containing an outbreak and saving lives. Training health professionals to handle these diseases and increasing the availability of vaccines are also vital steps in preparing for a possible outbreak.
