After a Shower of Anthrax, an Illness and a Mystery

New York Times ^ | 6/6/05 | Scott Shane

[TrebleRebel]

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - During the anthrax mail attacks in 2001, Bill Paliscak, a gung-ho, hockey-playing postal investigator who had missed 3 days of work in 11 years, removed a filthy filter above a mail-sorting machine to preserve it as evidence. Anthrax-laden dust showered down on him.

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David Scull for The New York Times Bill Paliscak cannot live at his home until an elevator is installed.

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Agence France-Presse Workers in October 2001 cleaned the Brentwood postal facility in Washington, where employees like Mr. Paliscak were exposed to anthrax. Four days later he began to feel feverish. Soon he was in intensive care. After spending the next three years in and out of the hospital, Mr. Paliscak, 41, now needs a wheelchair to move about, sleeps with a breathing device to get enough oxygen and takes dozens of pills a day.

-------------------------- After consulting with dozens of specialists across the country, his doctors at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore remain convinced that his anthrax exposure produced his disease, in part because exhaustive testing found no other cause. They believe his experience may hold scientific lessons about anthrax, which experts consider the likeliest weapon in future bioterrorist attacks.

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Anthrax experts asked about Mr. Paliscak's illness had varying views. Dr. Brachman, of Emory University, said he would not rule out anthrax as a cause, despite the test findings. Dr. Ken Alibek, a former Soviet bioweapons expert now at George Mason University, was more skeptical. "You cannot make the diagnosis without laboratory confirmation," Dr. Alibek said.

Both wondered whether Mr. Paliscak's illness might be a devastating reaction to some other substance on the filter, such as yeast or mold spores. But Mr. Paliscak's doctors said they could find no evidence for that possibility

[Peach]

You have raised some most interesting points and there is much to speculate. Like you, I have been convinced since day one that the anthrax attacks were perpetrated by AQ and likely with the assistance of Iraq.

I have quite a few files left, even after my computer crash, which point to Iraq as providing assistance to AQ in this regard. Even the Senate Intelligence Report said that Iraqi intelligence trained AQ in biological and chemical attacks.

As well, it is entirely unlikely that it is coincidence that the first person killed with anthrax in October 2001 happened to work for the man who rented an apartment to some of the 9/11 hijackers. And a few doctors in Florida came forward in 10/01 and said they recognized the hijackers, treated them for what they thought at the time was a burn or spider bite but later recognized as cutaneous anthrax.

[Gene Vidocq]

"Can you provide a link to more than one incident of cutaneous anthrax first diagnosed as spider/bug bites??"


"After the devastating September 11, 2001 attacks there was immediate speculation of linkage between the two events. It is alleged that a "skin lesion" found on Ahmed al-Haznawi, one of the September 11 hijackers who sought treatment in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was cutaneous anthrax. However, the anthrax letters were mailed after September 11. It is difficult to see how the hijackers were responsible for the anthrax attacks unless there were surviving comrades who continued their terrorist campaign."

[Gene Vidocq]

What is the True Number of Victims of the Postal Anthrax Attack of 2001?
Tyler C. Cymet, DO, Section Head, Assistant Professor
Gary J. Kerkvliet, MD, Associate Program Director

To the Editor:

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) counts as victims 22 people who were involved in the postal anthrax attack of 2001. We disagree. As scientists it is difficult to accept that fewer than 68 people were harmed in this event. There is no debate that at least 5 people died from inhalational anthrax, 11 people had cutaneous anthrax develop, and 6 people had diagnosed inhalational anthrax and survived. The debate concerns those individuals at the periphery: 38 people at the Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, DC, and 5 people at the America Media Inc building, Boca Raton, Florida, in whom anthrax was detected by nasal swab. These people were treated with antibiotics for 60 days and offered the anthrax vaccine, which many agreed to receive. Although they were treated like victims, because they did not have symptoms of anthrax, they were never counted as victims of that attack.1

The state of Delaware postal worker who tested positive for anthrax antibodies, but had a rash that appeared different than would be expected from anthrax, therefore was not counted as a victim because the rash was atypical.2 The CDC laboratory technician who had an abrasion while working with anthrax samples from the attack and, subsequently, had cutaneous anthrax develop was not counted as a victim.3 Finally, the US postal inspector in whom "aborted anthrax syndrome" developed after being exposed to large amounts of anthrax and becoming seriously ill was yet another victim not counted in this category.

That totals 68 people.

Bioterrorism affects more people than those who express the worst or classic case of an ensuing illness. Weaponized anthrax is a new illness that is still not understood. If we are to learn from this attack we need to start with an open mind.

Family Medicine Sinai Hospital of Baltimore
Internal Medicine Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Baltimore, Maryland

Sinai Program in General Internal Medicine Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

[Gene Vidocq]

Anthrax Victims Relief Legislation Introduced In Senate 2003. So, where's the relief?

"Mr. President, 2 years ago, a letter containing about 1 gram of highly concentrated anthrax was opened in my office in the Hart Senate Office Building. Potentially deadly anthrax letters were also mailed, apparently by the same person or persons, to my dear friend and colleague, Senator PATRICK LEAHY, and to several news organizations. Two years later, all of those crimes remain unsolved.

The anthrax attack on the Senate remains the largest bioterrorism attack ever on U.S. soil. Here in the Senate my staff and members of Senator Feingold's staff were exposed to up to 3,000 times the lethal dose of anthrax.

The entire Hart Senate Office Building was closed for 3 months while scientists searched for a way to do something that had never been done before: To reclaim a building that had been badly contaminated by anthrax...."
- Mr. DASCHLE


"Thomas Morris and Joseph Curseen worked for the U.S. Postal Service. They were decent, hard-working men who pushed themselves and continued to go to work and church even as anthrax infections were killing them. They and Robert Stevens, Kathy Nguyen, and Ottilie Lundgren all lost their lives in the anthrax attacks.

Their families have suffered a devastating blow. This bill would allow them to receive some small compensation for their losses without having to suffer through the additional trauma and long delays associated with a lawsuit."

-Senator Tom Daschle

[Peach]

Oh, Battle Axe, I'm sorry. Somehow your request fell off the radar. Here you go.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/546116/posts

See post #15 for excellent links about anthrax:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1047022/posts

[Gene Vidocq]

[muawiyah]

Filters in the HVAC in postal facilities are "sometimes" not changed.

Filters in HVAC in major mailer's facilities are almost never changed.

I can walk into a postal facility and tell you in about 10 seconds if the filters need changed, and that has happened. On the other hand I find it exceedingly uncomfortable to walk into any major mailer's facility due to the dust and mold spores that occur when filters are not changed.

Given the amount of dust generated by processing mail, those filters don't last long, so it's not unreasonable to imagine the Postal Inspector was sicked by both anthrax and several other things, including toxic molds.

People who laugh at the threat posed by clogged filters in large buildings probably have clogged filters. It's one of the symptoms donchaknow!

[piasa]

Biopreparat bump