Stalingrad and biological warfare

[blackfire]

The following post was made in a WMD forum. I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on this incident.

> The following claim was made by Dr Ken Alibek in BioHazard, a man fairly
> high up in the Soviet biological warfare section.
>
> That a mysterious outbreak of tularemia spread rapidly on the German
> side of the front just before the battle of Stalingrad. The first
> victims were German panzer troops who fell ill in large numbers. Shortly
> afterwards the Russians soldiers were effected presumably as it spread
> across the lines. Overall about 100,000 people were infected.
>
> He claims that the sudden increase in this disease could only be due to
> the Russians using it as a weapon.
>
> Does anyone know any more details on this event!


Probably not much. One of the key points Alibek makes is how skimpy the available information on this was, since it was highly classified by
Stalin's regime. You might be able to find information on Germans
suffering tularemia in accounts of the campaign, but typical "campaign
histories" tend to pay scant attention to such things. The health
conditions of troops has, historically, been of major importance in the
outcome of campaigns, but has also tended to get short shrift in most
accounts.

[Bruno]

Tularemia was first described as a plaguelike disease of rodents in 1911 and, shortly thereafter, was recognized as a potentially severe and fatal illness in humans.12 Tularemia's epidemic potential became apparent in the 1930s and 1940s, when large waterborne outbreaks occurred in Europe and the Soviet Union13-15 and epizootic-associated cases occurred in the United States.16, 17 As well, F tularensis quickly gained notoriety as a virulent laboratory hazard.18, 19 Public health concerns impelled substantial early investigations into tularemia's ecology, microbiology, pathogenicity, and prevention.19-22

Francisella tularensis has long been considered a potential biological weapon. It was one of a number of agents studied at Japanese germ warfare research units operating in Manchuria between 1932 and 194523; it was also examined for military purposes in the West. A former Soviet Union biological weapons scientist, Ken Alibeck, has suggested that tularemia outbreaks affecting tens of thousands of Soviet and German soldiers on the eastern European front during World War II may have been the result of intentional use.24 Following the war, there were continuing military studies of tularemia. In the 1950s and 1960s, the US military developed weapons that would disseminate F tularensis aerosols10; concurrently, it conducted research to better understand the pathophysiology of tularemia and to develop vaccines and antibiotic prophylaxis and treatment regimens. In some studies, volunteers were infected with F tularensis by direct aerosol delivery systems and by exposures in an aerosol chamber.10 A live attenuated vaccine was developed that partially protected against respiratory and intracutaneous challenges with the virulent SCHU S-4 strain of F tularensis,6, 7 and various regimens of streptomycin, tetracyclines, and chloramphenicol were found to be effective in prophylaxis and treatment.25-27 By the late 1960s, F tularensis was one of several biological weapons stockpiled by the US military.10 According to Alibeck, a large parallel effort by the Soviet Union continued into the early 1990s and resulted in weapons production of F tularensis strains engineered to be resistant to antibiotics and vaccines.24

In 1969, a World Health Organization expert committee estimated

http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v285n21 ... 10001.html

[Will]

I am sure that I am not alone in the opinion that the use of Biological weapons deployed in any theatre of combat is a disgraceful way to conduct warfare after all the war on the eastern front was barbaric enogh without deliberatly infecting the enemy as well as you own troops..-peace


vergeiessmeinicht

[blackfire]

I am sure that I am not alone in the opinion that the use of Biological weapons deployed in any theatre of combat is a disgraceful way to conduct warfare after all the war on the eastern front was barbaric enogh without deliberatly infecting the enemy as well as you own troops..-peace
vergeiessmeinicht

Is any weapon worse then any other? Is a bomb less barbaric then a germ?

Regardless if it was deliberately created, the conditions that allowed this epidemic to occur was created by the lack of sanitation. This was fundamentally responsible for creating the conditions that allowed the spread of this disease.

From childhood we are all taught about the necessarily of cleanness and the dangers of rats, human and animal waste and clean food and water. Yet here millions of men, horses and rats were kept together in totally unsanitary conditions. Without these conditions the epidemic would never have occured.

Maybe the people that sent and kept these people in Stalingrad should share the blame too.

[Will]

No-Doubt-peace

Vergeiessmeinicht