The Soviet Union had an extensive biological warfare division and unfortunately for the United States, much of what was created by their labs might be intact or worse, in the hands of other nations or powers more willing to use these weapons to achieve their goals of weakening the U.S. and its allies. The PBS science program, NOVA, did a story on the BioWarriors back in November of 2001.
This extract from the transcripts of Nova Online from the program is beyond chilling:
What happened to the Soviet program in 1972? They signed the same international treaty the U.S. signed, ostensibly banning offensive BW research, didn’t they? Patrick:
In 1972, just as they signed the Biological Convention, the Soviet Union expanded their program. Since they didn’t have the United States to follow, they went out on their own. And at that point they started concentrating on lethal agents.
They weaponized anthrax. They weaponized smallpox. They weaponized Yersinia pestis or plague. They weaponized Marburg virus. They grew it to high concentrations in guinea pigs. Now, it takes a lot of guinea pigs to produce the amount of dry powder they had on hand when supposedly their program came to an end.
They produced a very, very effective, scary product with Marburg virus.
Patrick: Because Marburg virus is lethal. It only takes one to two virus particles to cause an infection of the respiratory tract. There is no vaccine. And once you contract the disease, there is only one way to go, and that’s death. So it is very scary.
Journal of the American Medical Association report by Luciana Borio, MD issued on May 8, 2002 (PDF here). HISTORY AND POTENTIAL AS BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS
Hemorrhagic fever viruses have been weaponized by the former Soviet Union, Russia, and the United States. There are reports that yellow fever may have been weaponized by North Korea. The former Soviet Union and Russia produced large quantities of Marburg, Ebola, Lassa, and New World arenaviruses (specifically, Junin and Machupo) until 1992.
Soviet Union researchers quantified the aerosol infectivity of Marburg virus for monkeys, determining that no more than a few virions are required to cause infection. Yellow fever and Rift Valley fever viruses were developed as weapons by the US offensive biological weapons program prior to its termination in 1969.
The Japanese terrorist cult Aum Shinrikyo unsuccessfully attempted to obtain Ebola virus as part of an effort to create biological weapons. Several studies have demonstrated successful infection of nonhuman primates by aerosol preparations of Ebola, Marburg, Lassa, and New World arena-viruses.
Arguments asserting that the absence of effective antiviral therapy and vaccines would make these viruses too dangerous to develop as weapons are not supported by the historical record.
In 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classified the HFVs as category A bioweapon agents, based on the potential to cause widespread illness and death, ease of dissemination or person-to-person transmission, potential for major public health impact, and requirement of special action for public health preparedness.