Palm Beach County FL Man has Anthrax

Fox News Channel

[NautiNurse]

Breaking news on FNC--a 63 year old man from Palm Beach County is in critical condition with anthrax

[cgk]

Fox news says last diagnosed case of human anthrax in the US was 25 years ago--only 18 cases in the entire 20th century.

Uhm... I found this HUMAN case the other day when looking up cutaneous anthrax's symptoms.

Human Ingestion of Bacillus Anthracis-Contaminated Meat --- Minnesota, August 2000

On August 25, 2000, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) was notified by the Minnesota Board of Animal Health (MBAH) of Bacillus anthracis isolated from a steer on a farm in Roseau County, Minnesota. The infected steer was one of five dead cattle found in a pasture on August 20. On the basis of phage typing of isolates cultured from tissues and blood samples by the North Dakota State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, B. anthracis was confirmed. This report describes the management of and public health response to human exposure to meat contaminated with anthrax.

On July 24, the farmer who owned the infected steer also had killed, gutted, and skinned a cow that was unable to rise. A local veterinarian approved the slaughter of the cow for consumption by the farmer's family. Immediately after slaughter, the farmer took the carcass (carcass X) to a custom meat-processing plant; on July 31 and August 1, carcass X was processed. Two family members ate hamburgers made from carcass X on August 15 and steaks on August 19; three other family members ate hamburgers on August 20. A sixth member prepared the meals and also may have eaten contaminated meat. All meat was reported to have been well cooked. To investigate the possibility that they had eaten contaminated meat, the family members were interviewed by MDH on August 25. Two reported gastrointestinal illness; one reported 1 day of diarrhea approximately 48 hours after eating meat from carcass X, and the second reported 3 days of abdominal pain, diarrhea, and a temperature of 102.3 F (39.1 C) beginning 24--36 hours after consumption. Both recovered without treatment. The family was advised by MDH not to eat any more of the meat, to contact a physician, and to begin antibiotic prophylaxis with ciprofloxacin (500 mg, orally, twice daily).

Full Details here:

CDC: Minnesota Anthrax 2000

Stay safe - Mrs Kus

[Godfollow]

Ya know... what is it going to take?

I am getting to the point where I am having a hard time being told things like, "this is going to take time" and, "we are just going to have to be patient". Damn man... do something; you don't need permission to defend your life Mr. President... our lives.

This is what happens when you give up national sovereignty just so people will like you. To hell with Islam, to hell with Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria and all other Arabs that have the slightest reservation about whether they're with us or with the Terrorists. F-ing get rid of them or start digging your own grave. It's time to lead the way or get the F out of the way. I'm getting very angry...

[spunkets]

It's time to have penicillin, or tetracycline ready for the first symptoms. The disease is nipped fast if the drugs get there before the bacteria's population gets too high.

[InfraRed]

The claim is that a crop duster would not be appropriate for distributing anthrax spores, because the droplet size is orders of magnitude too large. Anthrax needs to be aerosolized.

While watching the news last night, the owner of a crop duster explained the ineffectiveness of the large nozzles. They actually showed the little screw-on nozzles used, and the rubber gaskets that seal them. It looked like 45 seconds of work to replace the nickle sized device with an atomizing tip. A quick web search turned up sample packs of atomizing tips for $50.

[ableChair]

Anthrax is actually divided into three different variants; each defined by it's contraction vector. Each type comes from a bacterium called Bacillus anthracis. The three types are intestinal, cutaneous, and inhalation anthrax. The CDC has confirmed that the man in florida has Inhalation anthrax, the version usually fatal. Mention of a trip to N. Carolina about a week ago by this man suggests that it was contracted in N. Carolina, but this is by no means certain. Also, mention was made of his drinking from an open stream, which would indicate a cutaneous vector, not inahalation, so I don't give that much credence.
To answer your question then, it can be contracted directly from contaminated air and in such a case would result in inhalation anthrax. If in direct physical contact with animals, one may contract it cutaneously, the version that results in about a 20% death rate if untreated. Treated it can usually be survived. If anthrax is in food and the food is eaten uncooked it may result in intestinal anthrax. Death occurs in 25 to 60% of cases, depending on the sophistication of medical treatment.
Alternately, inahalation anthrax can be contracted by breathing air in the vicinity of meat or animal hides infected with anthrax spores. This is the most common vector for an 'innocent' infection. Hunters are especially vulnerable in the presence of an infected animal for either the intestinal or inahalation version, but especially for inhalation anthrax. In such cases it is most likely contracted when dressing the animal. The CDC is investigating this possible explanation. We do know (from press conference with CDC doctor) that this man was an outdoorsman.
Weaponization of anthrax, and thus contraction via aersol (inhalation anthrax), is extremely difficult to accomplish and tons of such aersol will infect only a few victims. The best mechanism would probably be to put spores in the food supply, thus increasing the likelihood of inhalation anthrax when people breathe air in it's vicinity (preparing it for cooking) If this is suspected, use of an appropriate gas mask and gloves (or MOPP gear) in food preparation (done outdoors) is indicated.
All information provided above is public knowledge.

[marshmallow]

Today's crisis du jour.

If the WTC and Pentagon had still been standing, this would have received zero airplay.

Bin Laden has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. We have become a nation of twitchy, panic-stricken shills.

Stand erect, quit cowering, entrust yourselves to the loving arms of the Almighty, then go about your daily business.

[Tree of Liberty]

haven't heard any reports on his vocation, but I've read that he was in NC hunting, so might have come into contact with animals while on the trip.

As an aside to no one in particular, does anyone remember a report from several months back that stated Israel had developed a bio weapon that only effected those with arab genes? If that's true, I think it's time for some knowledge sharing and weapon deployment.

[NautiNurse]

I believe they were referring the the deadliest of anthrax infections--inhalation. While Fox News didn't state it, I am pretty certain they were referring to inhalation. As I mentioned before, cutaneous anthrax infection is quite benign. Intestinal anthrax is treatable too.

[Constitution Day]

I did a Google search for "Duke University", "Robert Stevens" and found:

Duke University Marine/Freshwater Biomedical Center where there is a Robert Stevens, Ph.D., Mass Spectrometry, Division of Pediatrics.

Further into this site I found that the

"The Durham Campus Facility Core provides a home for the Durham faculty of the Nicholas School of the Environment and has brought many of the Center investigators into proximity for the first time.
The Levine Science Research Center (LSRC) is a 341,000 square-foot research and teaching facility.
It is the largest interdisciplinary research and educational facility in the country.
The MBC mission of contributing to environmental health research is coincident with one of the four major interest areas of the School--that of toxicology and environmental health science."

Interesting.

[DrCarl]

They're saying the man was a heavy duty outdoorsman. Well, so am I and everyone I know and we ain't got no anthrax!

[toenail]

"Collidal Silver is a natural antibotic...you can purchase at your health food store. Take 2 ounces a day, no anthrax can survive."

If you want silver skin. Click on the picture.

[republicandiva]

Somebody has a link for e-purchases of antibiotics without a prescription??

I'm pretty sure Ciproflaxin (Cipro) is the antibiotic that would treat this stuff. I had to go on Cipro for a really stubborn bronchial/ear infection last year - this stuff is powerful - it's one of the new generation antibiotics. There's no way I'm going on it again unless it's a matter of life and death (which I guess it could be with Anthrax)...lots of nasty side effects.

[Deborah63]

Per Miami Herald, he was dropping his son of in Durham , NC (duke University). Not much hunting there!

[SlickWillard]

It would appear to be from hunting

The North Carolina game seasons are here:

http://216.27.49.98/pg04_HuntingTrapping/pg4b.htm

About the only game in season is deer with bow & arrow.

[RightField]

Stand erect, quit cowering, entrust yourselves to the loving arms of the Almighty, then go about your daily business.

AMEN!!

[d4now]

don't you mean "Is he an Islamic Activist?"

[Constitution Day]

"About the only game in season is deer with bow & arrow."

This is true, Slick.

[DJ88]

"If that makes you nervous, just listen to Tommy Thompson. He makes me more nervous."

Yes, I must say I agree...he didn't make me feel any better.."if you feel sick, go to the doctor." Great. They have medicine to treat 2 million people....what is the population here in Florida?????

Ok...big breath...shut up and go take a bath....LOL....(me, not you!)