Peer-reviewed research, commentary and history from across military and veterans’ health.
ANOTHER INTERESTING FORTNIGHT has come to an end, as our ADF ships and personnel pre-deploy to the Gulf. One of the key issues over this period has been the Australian…
AETIOLOGY ANTHRAX IS CAUSED BY the microorganism Bacillus anthracis, a large Gram positive rod-shaped bacterium which is commonly found singly or in pairs. The organism is capsulated in clinical specimens,…
THE EXPLOSION AT CHERNOBYL IN 1986 is the best known of the Russia n nuclear accidents. Recently, however, information has become available on other Russian nuclear accidents occurring in the…
CS IS THE GENERIC NAME FOR the lacrimating agent 0-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile (2-chloroben zalmalonitrile), which was originally developed in 1928 by B.B. Corson and R.W. Stoughton1,2 CS is normally solid, which…
OVER THE LAST 12 YEARS, Australian Military Medicine has published a myriad of articles on all aspects of military medicine. One aspect that has been close to my heart, particularly…
MOST MEDICAL PERSONNEL will not have seen smallpox, the disease resulting from infection by the variola virus. Hopefully, they never will. The last case of naturally acquired smallpox occurred in…
"IN NO FUTURE WAR will the military be able to ignore poison gas. It is a higher form of killing". Thus, spoke Professor Fritz Harber, pioneer of gas warfare, on…
AETIOLOGY Alphaviruses are single-stranded RNA viruses, spherical in shape, and with a diameter of around 60-70nm. They have a lipoprotein envelope and have glycoprotein surface spikes containing major antigens. They…
BIOTERRORISM, the deliberate use of biological weapons by a terrorist group, has become a major concern for Australia n medical, government and military agencies over the past two to three…
WHAT CAN YOU SAY to those who say that you can "cook up" biological warfare agents in the kitchen and kill thousands? Try positioning this account of the nascent British…
AETIOLOGY BRU CELLOSIS IS CAUSED BY organisms of the genus Brucella; particularly B. melitensis, B. suis and B. abortus. These organisms are small Gram-negative, aerobic, coccobacilli and are facultative intracellular…
GAIL BELL, IN HER BOOK “THE POISON PRINCIPLE”, tries to establish why people use poison2. She looks back over the centuries, from Cleopatra and Socrates to more modern poisoners like…
Sam Ross and Peterj Gray
THIS PAPER DESCRIBES the rationale for current work undertaken at the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defence Centre (CBRN DC) investigating the feasibility of pre-exposure approaches to counteracting the toxicity…
FROM 1998 TO 2000, the need for a civilian health response to chemical, biological and radiological (CBR) emergencies was identified and developed in preparation for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games…
VACCINES ARE EFFECTIVE AT protecting not only individuals but also communities. In the last fifty years, global immunisation programs have developed such strong "herd immunity" that some diseases, e.g. smallpox…
Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) Warfare remains as much a risk today as it has been in the past. With increased numbers of proliferating nations, increased industrialization and poorly effective…
MELIOIDOSIS, AN INFECTION CAUSED BY the bacillus Burkholderia pseudomallei, is endemic tropical and subtropical areas. In humans, the disease is caused by ingestion or by contact with contaminated water through…
Phosgene is a toxic substance which causes fatal permeability-type (non-cardiogenic) pulmonary oedema on inhalation. Phosgene is a simple low-molecular-weight synthetic chemical which was used as a chemical warfare agent in…
PHOSGENE IS USED IN industry widely and has potential use as a chemical weapon. In this paper, its chemistry, uses and effects will be reviewed. CHEMISTRY Phosgene (COCl2) was first…
AETIOLOGY PLAGUE IS CAUSED BY the bacterium Yersinia pestis, a small Gram-negative, non-motile coccobacillus, which has a characteristics bipolar “safety-pin” appearance when stained. Although this organism is non-sporing, it may…
"BIOLOGICAL WARFARE HAS ALREADY BEGUN. In the former Soviet Union, the military has perfected smallpox, anthrax and plague as biological warheads on intercontinental missiles can reach London, New York and…
AETIOLOGY Q Fever is caused by the rickettsial pathogen Coxiella burnetii, a minute bacterium-like organism which may vary in size and shape. The smaller organisms will pass through microbial filters…
Ricin is a toxin of plant origin which causes fatal permeability-type (non-cardiogenic) pulmonary oedema on inhalation of the aerosol. Ricin is composed of two chains, linked by a disulfide bond.…
AETIOLOGY ROCKY MOUNTAIN SPOTTED FEVER (RMSF) is caused by the rickettsial pathogen Rickettsia rickettsii, an obligate, intracellular parasite. These microorganisms are very small (0.3m-0.5m). Extracellular R. rickettsii ceases metabolic activity…
EBOLA AND MARBURG ARE HIGHLY LETHAL viral haemorrhagic fevers usually only seen in the wilds of Africa. In The Hot Zone, Richard Preston has detailed the recent outbreak of Ebola…
MANY MAY WONDER why a book on US military nuclear weapon safety has relevance to a health journal. The book's first, chapter sets the scene with a generic discussion of…
THE PLAGUE, RECOGNISED BY MOST FROM its description as the Black Death, is alive and well today. It is an enzootic disease of peridomestic and wild rodents caused by the…
TULARAEMIAS CAUSED BY the intracellular pathogen Francisella tularensis, a small, pleomorphic, aerobic, Gram-negative coccobacillus which requires a complex cysteine-containing growth medium for laboratory cultures. Capsules may form in tissues. The…
The use of biological weapons has been around since before the siege of Kaffa in 1346 when the Tartars catapulted plague-infected bodies over the ramparts. The potential for terrorists to…
