FYI:
The report is in that the man contracted Anthrax and lives in South Florida (Lantana). He had just returned form NC but I have not seen any print media reports yet. I have just returned from NC also and live in North Central Florida. The infected person is not expected to survive.
A few weeks ago I posted the following report from U of Cal Press (99): It seems appropriate to post this information again. There is also a message board forum here for Anthrax -> http://pnews.org/boards/anthrax/
The Investigation of a Deadly Outbreak
by Jeanne Guillemin
University of California Press, 1999
reviewed by Donald A. Henderson, MD, MPH
On April 2, 1979, a small cloud of anthrax spores was accidentally
released from a bioweapons production facility in Sverdlovsk, a Soviet
city in the Ural Mountains. It slowly drifted southeast over a portion
of the city's southern suburbs - invisible, unrecognized. Two days
later the first victims fell ill. Over the following six weeks, some
100 developed the disease and at least 70 died as a result of
infection acquired as much as three miles downwind from the release
point of the spores. This was the first and only known epidemic of
inhalation anthrax. Calculations suggest that the quantity of spores
released may have weighed less than one gram.
Anthrax is one of the most deadly of the biological weapons and the
agent most universally favored by those desiring to produce such
weapons. It is, in nature, a disease primarily of grazing animals who
acquire infection from contaminated soil. Natural infections in man
result from contact with animals or animal products and usually cause
an ulcer of the skin that is readily treated with antibiotics. There
are occasional small outbreaks of gastrointestinal disease when
undercooked, contaminated meat is consumed. However, inhalation
anthrax is an exceedingly rare but grave form of the disease that
kills upwards of 80% of its victims. From the onset of infection to
death is usually no more than 2 to 4 days. Antibiotics are of little
benefit in treatment unless administered very soon after the first
symptoms occur.
In her book, Anthrax, Jeanne Guillemin provides the only detailed
account of the appalling Sverdlovsk epidemic, an event which could be
repeated on a far larger scale were anthrax spores in an aerosol form
to be disseminated today by a terrorist. The book is structured around
the evolving investigation of the event led by Harvard biologist,
Mathew Meselson, assisted by the author and several Russian and
American scientists. The format is reminiscent of Berton Roueche's New
Yorker tales of epidemic sleuthing.
From the time of occurrence of the epidemic in 1979, Russian
scientists had attributed its cause to the consumption of contaminated
meat. However, rumors provided by emigres, suggested otherwise to US
intelligence analysts. In the interest of defusing suspicions about
Russian biological weapons developments, Meselson had repeatedly
pressed Russian officials and scientists for a full and open
investigation of the incident. Finally, in June 1992, permission was
granted for an American team to visit Sverdlovsk. Russian Ministry of
Health officials persisted in their assertion that the cause was
contaminated meat and provided little essential data. The challenge to
the team was that of investigating an epidemic more than a decade old,
one in which the clinical records had been confiscated by the KGB and
in which most victims had died of the disease.
At the outset, a critical breakthrough occurred with the discovery of
two pathologists who had performed numerous autopsies, 42 of which
they considered to be classical inhalation anthrax. Fortunately, the
specimens had been overlooked by KGB officials seeking to confiscate
all relevant data. An American pathologist on the team was able to
confirm them as being typical of inhalation anthrax. Thereafter, the
story unfolds as the author, assisted by Russian counterparts,
interviewed relatives of many of the survivors and gradually
assembles, piece by piece, considerable important information about
the epidemic.
Perhaps the most important finding was the discovery that the
incubation period for inhalation anthrax was NOT 2 to 6 days as
experimental animal studies had shown and as standard textbooks
proclaimed. Rather, it was 2 TO AT LEAST 45 days. The implication of
this finding is that after discovery of an epidemic, there would be
sufficient time to administer life-saving antibiotic prophylaxis to
prevent disease in as many as 75% of the potential victims.
Scientists and policy makers alike will be disappointed that the
author did not devote more time and effort to the analysis and
elucidation of the trove of epidemiological information that
apparently was collected. And what might have been a riveting
epidemiological detective story drifts too often into a rambling
travelogue with extended irrelevant digressions.
The book should be required reading for anyone seriously concerned
about biological terrorism. It is difficult to commend it to others
with a more general interest in epidemiology or cultural anthropology.
Copyright © 2000 The Johns Hopkins University on behalf of its Center
for Civilian Biodefense Studies. All rights reserved.
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