Anthrax Found?!?!

[glockguy45]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGALWUNYESC.html




Man Hospitalized in Palm Beach County With Anthrax
The Associated Press
Published: Oct 4, 2001

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A 63-year-old man has been hospitalized with pulmonary anthrax, Florida Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan said Thursday.
Anthrax has been developed by some countries as a possible biological weapon, but Brogan said there was no indication the illness was related to bioterrorism.

The Lantana, Fla. man, whose name was not released, checked into a hospital on Tuesday and it was initially believed he had meningitis, Brogan said. But testing and X-rays showed that it was pulmonary anthrax, an extremely lethal disease. It is treated with antibiotics.

Florida Secretary of Health John Agwunobi said the disease is not contagious and there is no indication that anyone else has it. The disease, while rare, can be caught naturally.

Brogan said the man had recently traveled to North Carolina and became ill shortly after he returned. The incubation period for the disease can be 60 days.

Tim O'Connor, spokesman for the Palm Beach health department, said officials believe the case is isolated and it is "very likely" to be fatal.

Palm Beach County health officials have scheduled a news conference Thursday afternoon to discuss the case.

Anthrax is a spore-forming bacterium often carried by livestock that is especially virulent if inhaled. The disease causes pneumonia and the spores germinate and spread through the lungs, releasing toxin.

There is a vaccine to prevent the disease.

Anthrax can be caught by handling infected animals, eating contaminated meat or breathing in anthrax spores. All forms are rare, but the most recent cases - including ones in Texas and North Dakota - have been so-called cutaneous cases resulting from handling animals.

During the 20th century, only 18 cases of inhaled anthrax have been reported in the United States, the most recent in 1976.

AP-ES-10-04-01 1543EDT

 

[AZ]

State of Florida and federal investigators from the Centers for Disease Control are at the Columbia JFK Medical Center are investigating, federal sources said.

''It is an isolated case and it is not contagious,'' U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson said at a White House briefing. ''There is no terrorism.''

Thompson said he was aware of two reported cases of anthrax -- one in Florida in 1974, the other within the last year in Texas -- in the United States, but admitted it was ''entirely possible'' there have been undocumented cases.

The patient was identitified as Robert Stevens.

 

[sumabich]

Not to worry, it's just an isolated non-contageous case!

I'm not a chemist and hope we have a few on board but my memory of Anthrax is that it is a MAN-MADE substance invented for one reason and one reason alone. Chemical warfare. It just doesn't show up as an isolated case. It is not naturally occuring in nature and has to be manufactured and dispensed some way. Yes it's not contageous but if you get it on your skin, breathe it or eat it, you're pretty much screwed! I think (going on an old memory here) it got away from them in 1979 and there was a 90% kill rate. If it is airborn it can float for mile. I plan on doing a little research tonight and I'm praying I'm sorely mistaken, but I bet I'm not. Sure, let's not scare the peeples! Here we go again!
<@> (that's a "holy-****" smiley

 

[glockguy45]

I like how they say not to worry, thats why the feds are all over like ants in FL, they just said that they dont think this man is going to pull out of this


here is the gubmints site on anthrax

http://www.anthrax.osd.mil

 

[jimpeel]

What these press types fail to tell you: Anthrax exists in nature and can be caught by anyone at any time -- sort of like Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. You don't hear of people getting it very often so when someone does, it is a big deal. Look at the West Nile Virus that these clowns just salivate over waiting for summer to come. This story is very fortuitous for them -- fortuitous indeed.

 

[sumabich]

Ok, I feel better now. Yeah right!

According to information at http://www.cdc.govncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/anthrax_g.htm it does occur in nature as a bacteria. If airborn though, you dead! As my buddy in England would say "Krikies"!!!! If the link doesn't work I'd appreciate it if someone else would post the link. I am still trying to find a link to the 1979 "accident". I plan on crawling into a very old bottle I've been saving for sometime tonight so won't trust my posts at this point.


When the going gets tough, the tough grab a bottle! Then hit you over the head when it's empty!

 

[Don Gwinn]

Let's not panic until the second case comes up.

 

[glockguy45]

When would they tell us about a second case???

 

[labgrade]

somabich's is correct

and

read more about it here

always thought anthrax was hoof 'n mouth desease ....

 

[Mike Irwin]

Anthrax is NOT a man-made disease.

It is a spore encapsulated bacterium (IIRC), not unlike Tuberculosis.

As with TB, anthrax is animal borne, and apparently only made the leap to humans when our ancestors domesticated cattle a few thousand years ago.

Scientists have been working with Anthrax, Plague, and other nasty little critters in biological warfare programs for years, trying to develop super strains that infect and kill quickly.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Lab,

Hoof and mouth is a virus, not a bacteria.

 

[cyeager]

Just yesterday we had a big disaster prep class at the hospital. We spent a lONG time on terrorism including bio-terrorism. Anthrax is mostly scary because it is so available. It really isnt as nasty as I thought. You CAN get sick if it gets on your skin. You could get some real nast ulcers etc. But, it is very treatable and fatalities from this are remote at best esp with treatment. This is the most likely way of contracting it naturaly. Additianaly you can catch airborn spores wich is much nastier. Something like 90% mortality rate without treatment. With antibiotics and agressive therapy it is much lower. Something to bear in mind is that there are rumors of drug-resistant anthrax which, like drug resistant TB is very bad news even with treatment. Antrax is not particularly contagious. Apparently you can get it from direct contact with the ulcers etc. But, unlike TB it does not get airborn. From a military standpoint it has a profile much more like a chemical weapon than biological. You have your initial cases at the dispersal point but, it doesnt go far from there.

Of course smallpox is an entirely different story. As is some kind of mutant flu virus (dont forget the spanish flu after ww1).

 

[C.R.Sam]

Foggy ol brain remembering that anthrax was the first bacillus isolated and recognized as the cause of a disease. Think by Robert Koch in the 1870s. He got his from sheep.

Sam

 

[MFH]

Another problem associated with the disease popping up occasionally is that the spores of bacillus anthracis are very stable in the soil. As an example, if an infected animal were buried many years ago and new earthmoving were to expose the spores, ionfection is possible, at least in livestock.

MFH

 

[Fuzzy]

One of my great-grandfathers died of anthrax. He was a country vet and caught it from a cow he was treating. It's rare that a human will catch it but not unheard of. If it's only one case found, then I wouldn't worry.

 

[glockguy45]

Heard this a few days ago, and now I heard it again on Foxnews, a second case has been reported in Florida, they havent released how bad it is in this persons body, as soon as I can get a link to a story I will add it,



here is another story though,

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/10/6/01001.shtml



Sole Source of Anthrax Vaccine Isn't a Source at All
Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com
Monday October 8, 2001
The only laboratory in the U.S. capable of making crucial anthrax vaccine hasn't been able to produce a single dose of the vitally needed immunilogical substance in the face of a potential bioterror attack using deadly anthrax agents.
Meant to be the source of the vaccine to be used to immunize the military from the deadly anthrax disease, Michigan's BioPort Corporation, the sole supplier of anthrax vaccine to the military has not produced a single dose since 1998, when it bought the plant from the state, according to Saturday's New York Times.

Writing in the Times, correspondent Stephen Kinzer reports that BioPort has been plagued with problems from the very beginning, including poor documentation and improper procedures in the room where the vaccine was packaged, according to FDA inspectors.

While the company says it hopes finally to begin producing anthrax this year it still must pass another FDA inspection, which has yet to be scheduled.


BopPort's problems are well known by the government. Last year, Arkansas GOP Senator Tim Hutchinson called the company's record "an unmitigated disaster," noting that its failures were "costing the American taxpayer millions and millions of dollars and jeopardizing the safety of our troops who we're not able to provide that anthrax vaccination."

The company is not without its sympathizers, however. "There's a lot of criticism of BioPort," Tara O'Toole, deputy director of the Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies at Johns Hopkins University told the Times. "But to be fair, there's also a lot of talk that the Defense Department significantly underfunded the whole effort and didn't give it the priority it deserved."

"In retrospect," O'Toole added "the whole notion of turning this over to a new contractor instead of an established pharmaceutical company looks questionable."


While BioPort is working frantically to get into production, the fact that there is at present no source in this country of a vaccine that could mean life or death to Americans in the event of an anthrax attack is a critical one, especially since many experts say that if terrorists launch a biological attack using biological agents, they would most likely use anthrax.

The Times reveals that even though anthrax is reportedly hard to produce and spread in large doses, any enemy that was able to do so could inflict horrendous damage on their targets.

"A 1993 government study found that spraying just 220 pounds of aerosol anthrax over Washington could kill up to three million people," the Times reported, noting that Osama bin Laden has also taken an interest in chemical and biological warfare.

"It's a good bio-terror weapon and even better for biological warfare, and it's lying on the ground in places like Afghanistan" William Dietrich, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School told the Times.

Dietrich, who is researching the anthrax bacterium added. "If you have a collection of soldiers you want to kill without infecting your own population or soldiers anthrax has good properties with regard to that. If you can produce it and disperse it on a battlefield, you can kill a lot of people very quickly. It's a very terrible, high-fatality kind of illness that we don't have enough tools in our arsenal to stop."

The Times says that should the company finally pass its next FDA inspection and can resume production, the first several million doses will go solely to the military.

The Defense Department is BioPort's sole customer, spending $126 million in the plant over the last decade, according to the Times. The military plans to immunize all 2.4 million active and reserve troops against anthrax but have so far managed to begin immunizing only about 500,000, mostly those in the Persian Gulf.

Anybody else will simply have to wait, scarce comfort at a time when an anthrax attack by terrorists remains a real possibility

 

[glockguy45]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,35975,00.html


Officials: Anthrax Shown in Co-Worker

Monday, October 08, 2001


Email this Article

BOCA RATON, Fla. — A co-worker of the man who died last week from anthrax also has tested positive for the disease and the building where both worked was closed after the bacterium was detected there.


The latest case, a man whose name was not immediately made public, was in stable condition Monday at an unidentified hospital, according to both the Florida and North Carolina health departments.

A nasal swab from the patient tested positive for the anthrax bacterium, said Tim O'Conner, regional spokesman for Florida's health department. It was not yet clear if anthrax had only infiltrated his nose, spread to his lungs or if he had a full-blown case of the disease.

The man's co-worker, Bob Stevens, died on Friday, the first person in 25 years in the United States to have died from a rare inhaled form of anthrax.

News that Stevens had contracted the disease set off fears of bio-terrorism, especially when it was revealed that Middle Eastern men were believed to have recently visited an airfield about 40 miles from Stevens' home in Lantana and asked questions about crop-dusters.

O'Conner said there is no evidence that either man was a victim of terrorism. ``That would take a turn in the investigation,'' he said. ``It's a different aspect, we were thinking more of environmental sources.''

Stevens, 63, was a photo editor at the supermarket tabloid The Sun. Environmental tests performed at the Sun's offices in Boca Raton detected the anthrax bacteria, said O'Conner.

The Sun's offices have been shuttered and law enforcement, local and state health and CDC officials were to take additional samples from the building on Monday, O'Conner said.

About 300 people who work in the building are being contacted by the Sun and instructed not come to work Monday and undergo antibiotic treatment to prevent the disease.

The FBI was helping in the search for the source of the bacterium, said Miami FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela. But ``the current risk of anthrax is extremely low,'' O'Conner said.

It was unclear when the final tests would tell whether or not the second man has full-blown anthrax. The bacterium normally has an incubation period of up to seven days, but could take up to 60 days to develop, O'Conner said.

``We're waiting for additional testing to see if it will become a confirmed case of anthrax or not,'' said Barbara Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. ``I realize for the public this is going to be a very slight distinction.''

Michael Kahane, vice president and general counsel of American Media Inc., which publishes the Sun and two other tabloids, the Globe and the National Enquirer, confirmed the company closed its Boca Raton building at the request of state health officials.

``We are cooperating with the department of health and all other governmental agencies investigating this matter,'' he said Monday. ``Obviously our first concern is the health and well-being of our employees and their families.''

Only 18 inhalation cases in the United States were documented in the 20th century, the most recent in 1976 in California. State records show the last anthrax case in Florida was in 1974.

Officials believe Stevens contracted anthrax naturally in Florida. The disease can be contracted from farm animals or soil, though the bacterium is not normally found among wildlife or livestock in the state. Stevens was described as an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed fishing and gardening.

County medical examiners are looking over any unexplained deaths, but have not found any cases connected to anthrax. Veterinarians have been told to be on alert for animals who might have the disease, but none have turned up.

Health officials are checking intensive care units of area hospitals to check records going back 30 days for suspicious cases. They should be finished Monday, said O'Conner.

 

[TheBluesMan]

Originally posted by Don Gwinn:
Let's not panic until the second case comes up.

Can I start panicking now?

 

[ahenry]

Can I start panicking now?

No.
I discussed this with a close friend of mine that is taking some classes for her masters that cover these types of things (anthrax and the like). It turns out that the professor in one of those classes is a pretty sharp cookie and is taking advantage of current events to teach. Anyway, according to their discussions, about the only way anthrax could become a big epidemic is if a bomb was used to disperse the spores. This is why. Anthrax has a 7-8 day incubation period, during which you can take the antibodies and still live (of course some minute statistical percentage will not be saved by antibodies no matter when they get them). In that time period the older and more susceptible individuals (probably like the ones that have been reported with it already) will be diagnosed which will clue in doctors so that they can begin to treat those that might have been exposed (just like you now see in FL). Now I am not saying people wouldn’t die, but there is little likelihood that you would see the really big numbers that most people are fearful of.

Of course even if the terrorist were smart enough to know all of this beforehand (I doubt they were) anthrax is still a useful weapon just for the potential fear it can create. It is important to remember that a terrorist’s goal is not necessarily body count. They are more interested in interrupting or destroying our way of life. That is the arena you beat them in.

 

[glockguy45]

I have to disagree with one part, it doesnt take a bomb a plane or any other hard get to hard to use device, we gave these clowns methods on ways to spred Anthrax, one of the things that we gave Iraq can be used under neath a car... this isnt hearsay, I have seen the things that can be used, I saw all this from a guy that use to work in the Bio field for the CIA...


Prepare for the worst hope for the best!!!