''Biohazard'', subtitled ''The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World - Told from Inside by the Man Who Ran It'', is a 1999 book by former

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

biological warfare Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological toxins or Pathogen, infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and Fungus, fungi with the intent to kill, harm or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an ...

researcher

Ken Alibek Kanatzhan "Kanat" Baizakovich Alibekov (born 1950), known as Kenneth "Ken" Alibek since 1992, is a Kazakh-American microbiologist, bioweaponeer, and biological warfare administrative management expert. He was the first deputy director of Biop ...

that purports to expose the former Soviet Union's extensive covert

biological weapons Biological agents, also known as biological weapons or bioweapons, are pathogens used as weapons. In addition to these living or replicating pathogens, toxins and biotoxins are also included among the bio-agents. More than 1,200 different kin ...

program. The book is a autobiography of Alibek's life as a bioweapons developer in the former Soviet Union. It was first published by Hutchinson in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in 1999, and later then rereleased by

Arrow Books Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the follow ...

in 2000. The book also details the worst

anthrax Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Bacillus anthracis'' or ''Bacillus cereus'' biovar ''anthracis''. Infection typically occurs by contact with the skin, inhalation, or intestinal absorption. Symptom onset occurs between one ...

outbreak in history, the

Sverdlovsk anthrax leak On 2 April 1979, spores of ''Bacillus anthracis'' (the causative agent of anthrax) were accidentally released from a Soviet Armed Forces research facility in the city of Sverdlovsk in the Soviet Union. The ensuing outbreak of the disease result ...

, which led to 68 confirmed deaths.

The book

Alibek, K. and S. Handelman. ''Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World - Told from Inside by the Man Who Ran it.'' 1999. Delta (2000) 1999 in the environment 1999 non-fiction books Biological warfare Books about the Soviet Union Hutchinson (publisher) books {{poli-book-stub