Posted on 10/06/2001 11:52:59 AM PDT by TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
LANTANA, Fla. (AP) - Relatives of a Florida man who contracted a fatal case of anthrax are being given antibiotics as a precaution and the man's co-workers have been tested and cleared, health authorities said Saturday.
Investigators are awaiting test results from soil and other specimens as they try to learn how 63-year-old Bob Stevens contracted the rare and extremely lethal inhaled form of the disease. He died Friday.
More than 50 health and law enforcement officials have fanned out across Palm Beach County to track his movements over the past two months and look for other possible cases.
"We have a long chronology of common activities we need to pursue," state epidemiologist Dr. Steven Wiersma said Saturday. "We don't have any really hot leads at this time."
No other cases of anthrax have been reported in the area. Wiersma said several of Stevens' co-workers at the supermarket tabloid The Sun have been tested, but results were negative. Also, as a precaution, close family members are being treated with antibiotics.
Officials have said there is no evidence that Stevens was the victim of terrorism. Wiersma said tests of Stevens' blood further confirmed that belief because the anthrax in the sample responded to penicillin. Anthrax developed by some countries as a biological weapon could be resistant to the antibiotic, he said.
The Sept. 11 hijackings have put many people on edge about a bioterrorism threat.
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.
Officials are also investigating in North Carolina, where Stevens visited last month, but said the disease also is rare among animals in that state.
Investigators have cast a wide net in their search in Florida.
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.
Investigators also are visiting restaurants, parks and other locations he frequented or even visited casually, Wiersma said.
Samples have been sent to labs in Miami or Jacksonville or to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Results could take days.
Only 18 inhalation cases in the United States were documented in the 20th century, the most recent in 1976 in California. The last anthrax case in Florida was in 1974, according to the state health department.
Stevens lived on the same street in this quiet West Palm Beach suburb for 23 years. He and his wife raised their four children, now adults, and British-born Stevens - who became a U.S. citizen - raised his American flag on holidays.
As word of his death spread through the community Friday evening, a worker at a nearly nursery school stopped by his home to drop off cards made by preschool children.
Stevens loved fishing, neighbors said, and would take his next-door-neighbor's 10-year-old boy fishing twice a month.
"It just seems like a horrible dream that you can't wake up from," said neighbor Mary Crandell, whose granddaughter had taken drawing lessons from Stevens for years.
"She's really outgoing and I contribute that to him," Crandell said. "He always had time for her."
AP-ES-10-06-01 1429EDT
If he"responded to penicillin" why is he dead.
Past reports have shown he sought medical attention as soon as he did not feel well.If penicillin was an answer why is he dead?
What am I missing...the article 'vaguely leads' that he did not get treatment in time all past reports vaguely led on that he did.
Nothing to see here, just move on.
It was all just a coincidence.
No need to intern anybody, the muslims are your friend.
You don't die from the bacteria itself. You die from a certain toxin it produces.
By the time you get symptoms, the amount of toxin in your body has teached lethal levels. At that point, you can kill every bacteria in your body and you will still die.
Once the bacteria get to the lymph nodes, it's difficult (impossible?) to stop death. Also, keep in mind that this person was 63. My guess is that it looked like his lungs were clearing while the bug made it's way to the lymphatic system so thry tagged him as "responding."
They used a ridiculous statement to 'try' to prove it was not a terrorist attack.
Last is still this WHOPPER coincidence with being 10 miles from the mad jihaders hangout. It's TWO coincidences, first, the actual area-with the entire US as being the potential "occassional and natural anthrax area", he's practically on top of where they were, and second is the timing, right after the wtc attacks relatively speaking. One or the other-coincidence, two simultaneously starts to look like *not* a coincidence, IMO.
So it was inhaled. From where a five second air pocket,dirt,a merry go round ride?
Do you think they would risk public panic telling us if they DID know something more of a terror attack,is the question to answer and ponder. No tin foil hat needed to think about this.
Three worrisome cases emerged, but two were ruled out and one was labeled unlikely by
day’s end...(blahahblah)... Still, one of the three patients being scrutinized worked
in the same building as Stevens
Last is still this WHOPPER coincidence with being 10 miles from the mad jihaders hangout. It's TWO coincidences, first, the actual area-with the entire US as being the potential "occassional and natural anthrax area", he's practically on top of where they were, and second is the timing, right after the wtc attacks relatively speaking. One or the other-coincidence, two simultaneously starts to look like *not* a coincidence, IMO.
Very well said.
No medicine could have helped him.
He waited too long to begin treatment.
Generally, only those who begin antibiotics BEFORE exhibiting symptoms will live. Of course, that raises the question of how the heck is a person to know they need treatment if there are no symptoms. The answer is, the don't.
That's why Anthrax sucks bigtime.
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