United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that the very idea of using a disease as a weapon is viewed with repugnance. He, however, urged the the international community to remain vigilant as scientific advances are reducing technical barriers that earlier limited the potential of biological weapons.

The UN chief, in his message on the 45th anniversary of the Biological Weapons Convention’s entry into force, said that all countries should reaffirm their unequivocal rejection of the use of disease as a weapon.

March 26 marked the 45th anniversary of the entry into force of the Biological Weapons Convention, the first multilateral disarmament treaty to ban an entire category of weapons of mass destruction. The anniversary comes as the world is grappling with the Coronavirus pandemic.

India, in its message for the 45th anniversary, said that the global economic and social implications of the pandemic, caused by COVID-19, have underlined the need for international cooperation, including institutional strengthening of the World Health Organization.

The outbreak, which began in China, has now spread to almost every country in the world. Globally, there are 652,079 confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 30,000 people have died of the disease.