PREVENTING THE MISUSE OF MICROORGANISMS - THE ROLE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR MICROBIOLOGY IN PROTECTING AGAINST BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS

The American Society for Microbiology's (ASM) involvement with issues surrounding biological weapons began during World War II and continues to the present time. The Public and Scientific Affairs Board (PSAB) o f the ASM has played an important role in monitoring and responding to legislative and regulatory issues involving biological weapons. As th is review makes apparent, there is no consensus of opinion among scien tists on their role in biological defense research, or is it likely th at there will ever be complete agreement. There is consensus that step s should be taken to prevent biological warfare and that openness of s cientific research and global surveillance of disease outbreaks can si gnificantly increase transparency for detecting development of biologi cal weapons. The ASM recommends increased attention to and efforts dir ected toward global surveillance of disease outbreaks, not only to aid public health organizations in improving human health, but also to es tablish baseline data against which unusual disease outbreaks can be a ssessed. Issues of how best to increase global security and to achieve a scientifically based verification protocol of the Biological Weapon s Convention are important and continue to be addressed by the ASM.