The Impact of the Sverdslovsk Incident of 1979 In 1979 Russia experienced a tragic epidemic that caused international suspense. The ingestion of contaminated meat containing highly lethal and infectious bacteria claimed the lives of 64 people in the city of Sverdslovsk. Russian scientists accepted and documented the incident as natural and unfortunate, but officials of the United States suspected nefarious activities attributed to military facilities in the Russian city of Sverdslovsk. Scientific investigations began after over a decade of cessation. Because of the investigations conducted by American officials and their colleagues’ years later, major concern grew regarding Russia’s use of Bacillus anthracis, or anthrax, as a foundation for a biological warfare program. Leaders of the investigation were more concerned with the wicked and criminal intentions, rather than the incident. These systematic examinations and research efforts caused politically charged proceedings, social unrest, and widespread panic. Silent and Lethal …show more content…
According to a reference retrieved from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “The first deliberate uses of anthrax as an act of aggression were recorded in the early decades of the 1900s, during World War I” (CDC 2013). World War I claimed the lives of many American Soldiers on account of chemical and biological war agents. Researchers and investigators of the Sverdslovsk outbreak defined the lethal bacteria: Anthrax is an acute disease that primarily affects domesticated and wild herbivores and is caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Human anthrax results from a cutaneous infection or, more rarely, from ingestion or inhalation of the pathogen from contaminated animal products. Anthrax has also caused concern as a possible agent of biological warfare (Guillemin