For this assignment, Part One of your course project, assume the role of Dr. Madness. Your rogue nation seeks global domination. With a bare bones laboratory and your exhaustive microbiological and epidemiological knowledge, you (Dr. Madness) decide that the best way to rule the world is to create and disseminate the perfect biological weapon.

For this part of the assignment, you will develop your weapon from the ground up. Discuss nearly all of the epidemiological criteria related to it, and justify and discuss why it is used and how effective it is. This agent could be a hybrid of other biological pathogens or an entirely new one. If the agent is newly created, there must be some basis and epidemiological support of a similar agent by which you can base your justification. In other words, it will be unrealistic to create an airborne virus that inoculates and kills within one hour. There must be a realistic exposure and incubation time and must be supported through current agent biology or biochemistry (for example, influenza exposure and incubation takes 1–4 days).

• Name of Agent: Explain why you chose the name. If it is a biological agent, be sure to provide a taxonomic name
• Etiology: This will talk about the genesis of your agent. Where was it discovered? How was it made? How long has it been around? Why was this agent created? What were the social and economic factors of your rogue nation that made Dr. Madness focus on this element of the agent? What are the environmental precursors to this agent? Discuss the interaction among agent, host, and environment.
• Identification: This will describe the basics of the agent. Is it a bacteria, virus, toxin, parasite, hybrid, or something else? Discuss how your agent presents within the human population. What are the symptoms in humans? What are the (zoonotic)  symptoms in animals? How does the disease progress? Are there stages? Discuss the various stages including length of infection, severity, and the like. What are the diagnostic indicators? How would a doctor be able to identify this agent in a clinic or emergency room?
• Laboratory Analysis: How will the agent be identified? Can it be grown in media? What type of laboratory methods can be used to identify the agent (microscopy, chromatography, PCR, and so on)?
• Occurrence: This is the epi: who, what, when, where, how, and why of the disease. Where does it happen? When can it be found? Who is most and least susceptible to the agent (risk factors). More exotic and hard to find agents are harder to prevent and control but are also more difficult to initiate an epidemic or pandemic, whereas more generalized and known agents may be easier to cure, but have a much wider swath of causing pandemics. How do socioeconomic factors foster or inhibit the spread of disease?
• Reservoir: What is the natural reservoir of the agent? Are there other organisms where this agent can reside without causing disease? Increasing the reservoir can enhance transmission but can also allow for easier identification and treatment in response to it.
• Mode of Transmission: Consider inhalation, absorption, digestion, contact, and so forth. If you use multiple modes, justify your selections.
• Incubation Period: Provide the range with an average (median) day of disease onset. Does the period change in different socioeconomic status identifiers (sex, age, race, creed, and so on)? Why or why not?
• Period of communicability: How long is a person with this agent contagious? Increasing this period also increases the opportunity for study and thus treatment and control.
• Susceptibility: Is the agent susceptible to reinfection of the same person? Allowing for this increases morbidity but usually mortality wanes in subsequent infections.

Taking on the role of Dr. Madness, generate your superweapon and describe the weapon using the above mentioned criteria. Remember, the focus in on creating something that becomes difficult to identify, monitor, or treat with prophylaxis. You will write out the proposal as Dr. Madness submitting this to his lead researcher to develop. This proposal should be approximately 5 pages in length, but some submissions may be longer.

Submit your Bioweapons and Epidemiology Part One proposal in the assignment area.

Please be sure to review the Bioweapons and Epidemiology Part One Scoring Guide for information on how this assignment is graded.

Project Requirements

To achieve a successful project experience and outcome, you are expected to meet the following requirements.

• Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• APA formatting: Resources and citations should be formatted according to current APA style and formatting.
• Resources: Include all literature cited in the project.
• Length of paper: min 5 typed, single-spaced pages, not including cover page and resource list.
• Font and font size: Arial, 10 point.

For this assignment, you will assume the role of Dr. Hero, the Centers for Disease Control’s emerging pathogens program director. You have been contacted by the CDC director, the World Health Organization director, and the President of the United States to get a grasp on rapidly increasing cases of an unknown origin. You have just returned from vacation in the Canary Islands and have not yet been apprised of this dire situation. You must respond quickly and efficiently to avert a potential pandemic and subsequent apocalypse. From this point of view, write to discuss how and what you will do, epidemiologically, clinically, and in terms of public health to combat the superweapon.

Select another learner’s superweapon from their Unit 9 submission by visiting the Unit 10, Discussion 1 thread and selecting one learner’s submission.

Address the following items in your research plan that will be submitted to the CDC, World Health Organization, and the President of the United States that outlines the nation’s epidemiological response to Dr. Madness’ rogue superweapon:

• Agent Name: Briefly summarize the superweapon you selected and its epidemiology. The most significant component of this section will center around what makes this agent epidemiologically difficult to address from a public health perspective.
• Diagnostic Tests: How will diagnosis occur in sick patients, both clinically and in the laboratory? Also discuss how technology and research and development will allow for enhancements to minimize downtime on diagnoses.
• Treatment: What will the tertiary public health prevention (treatment) be for the agent? Discuss potential for resistance or agent adaptation and sensitivity to the treatment. Will the treatment work in all populations? What costs will be expected if it is a new treatment being developed (in addition to the time spent in the pandemic developing a new treatment).
• Clinical Treatment of Hospitalized Patients: What control measures and universal precautions will be utilized? Will isolation factor in your strategy?
• Epidemiological Control of Cases in Community: How will you control the cases, contacts, and immediate environment of those who are not hospitalized?
• Preventive Measures: Is there an expectation of a vaccine to be developed? Are there other control measures to consider?
• Epidemic Measures: How does the plan change once cases outnumber public health and clinical resources to manage?
• Disaster Implications: Discuss social, psychological, economic, labor, transportation, and other aspects relevant to your plan.
• International Measures: What is the level and function of World Health Organization involvement? Discuss participation and assistance from health agencies from around the world.

After creating a plan and quelling the super bioweapon, write a summary report on your vision of the expected summary and convalescence of the agent release. How many people were sickened? How many countries were affected? On how many continents did the agent affect? How many deaths resulted? Was it eradicated? Assess the social, psychological, and economic impact of the pandemic. You will also want to dedicate part of your conclusion discussing the lessons learned from this event to prevent a future pandemic or intentional releases of another superweapon. The total length for the Unit 10 assignment should be approximately 6–8 pages in length, but some responses may be longer.

Submit your Bioweapons and Epidemiology Part Two proposal in the assignment area.

Please be sure to review the Bioweapons and Epidemiology Part Two Scoring Guide for information on how this assignment is graded.

Project Requirements

To achieve a successful project experience and outcome, you are expected to meet the following requirements.

• Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• APA formatting: Resources and citations should be formatted according to current APA style and formatting.
• Resources: Include all literature cited in the project.
• Length of paper: 6–8 typed, single-spaced pages, not including cover page and resource list.
• Font and font size: Arial, 10 point.

For this assignment, Part One of your course project, assume the role of Dr. Madness. Your rogue nation seeks global domination. With a bare bones laboratory and your exhaustive microbiological and epidemiological knowledge, you (Dr. Madness) decide that the best way to rule the world is to create and disseminate the perfect biological weapon.

For this part of the assignment, you will develop your weapon from the ground up. Discuss nearly all of the epidemiological criteria related to it, and justify and discuss why it is used and how effective it is. This agent could be a hybrid of other biological pathogens or an entirely new one. If the agent is newly created, there must be some basis and epidemiological support of a similar agent by which you can base your justification. In other words, it will be unrealistic to create an airborne virus that inoculates and kills within one hour. There must be a realistic exposure and incubation time and must be supported through current agent biology or biochemistry (for example, influenza exposure and incubation takes 1–4 days).

• Name of Agent: Explain why you chose the name. If it is a biological agent, be sure to provide a taxonomic name
• Etiology: This will talk about the genesis of your agent. Where was it discovered? How was it made? How long has it been around? Why was this agent created? What were the social and economic factors of your rogue nation that made Dr. Madness focus on this element of the agent? What are the environmental precursors to this agent? Discuss the interaction among agent, host, and environment.
• Identification: This will describe the basics of the agent. Is it a bacteria, virus, toxin, parasite, hybrid, or something else? Discuss how your agent presents within the human population. What are the symptoms in humans? What are the (zoonotic)  symptoms in animals? How does the disease progress? Are there stages? Discuss the various stages including length of infection, severity, and the like. What are the diagnostic indicators? How would a doctor be able to identify this agent in a clinic or emergency room?
• Laboratory Analysis: How will the agent be identified? Can it be grown in media? What type of laboratory methods can be used to identify the agent (microscopy, chromatography, PCR, and so on)?
• Occurrence: This is the epi: who, what, when, where, how, and why of the disease. Where does it happen? When can it be found? Who is most and least susceptible to the agent (risk factors). More exotic and hard to find agents are harder to prevent and control but are also more difficult to initiate an epidemic or pandemic, whereas more generalized and known agents may be easier to cure, but have a much wider swath of causing pandemics. How do socioeconomic factors foster or inhibit the spread of disease?
• Reservoir: What is the natural reservoir of the agent? Are there other organisms where this agent can reside without causing disease? Increasing the reservoir can enhance transmission but can also allow for easier identification and treatment in response to it.
• Mode of Transmission: Consider inhalation, absorption, digestion, contact, and so forth. If you use multiple modes, justify your selections.
• Incubation Period: Provide the range with an average (median) day of disease onset. Does the period change in different socioeconomic status identifiers (sex, age, race, creed, and so on)? Why or why not?
• Period of communicability: How long is a person with this agent contagious? Increasing this period also increases the opportunity for study and thus treatment and control.
• Susceptibility: Is the agent susceptible to reinfection of the same person? Allowing for this increases morbidity but usually mortality wanes in subsequent infections.

Taking on the role of Dr. Madness, generate your superweapon and describe the weapon using the above mentioned criteria. Remember, the focus in on creating something that becomes difficult to identify, monitor, or treat with prophylaxis. You will write out the proposal as Dr. Madness submitting this to his lead researcher to develop. This proposal should be approximately 5 pages in length, but some submissions may be longer.

Submit your Bioweapons and Epidemiology Part One proposal in the assignment area.

Please be sure to review the Bioweapons and Epidemiology Part One Scoring Guide for information on how this assignment is graded.

Project Requirements

To achieve a successful project experience and outcome, you are expected to meet the following requirements.

• Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• APA formatting: Resources and citations should be formatted according to current APA style and formatting.
• Resources: Include all literature cited in the project.
• Length of paper: min 5 typed, single-spaced pages, not including cover page and resource list.
• Font and font size: Arial, 10 point.