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To: Don Joe
I don't understand how anthrax can't be communicable. Bear with my logic, but say you have the spores or bacteria in your nasal passages and you sneeze. If the bacteria or spores are dislodged and sprayed by your sneeze are they no longer communicable because they have been in your nasal passage for hours/days? Do the spores become bacteria immediately upon inhalation and are at that point only deadly to host? The nasal swab on mailroom worker revealed anthrax "spores". This was some time after exposure. The spores had not yet evolved into the bacteria.
110 posted on 10/09/2001 1:41:19 AM PDT by not-an-ostrich
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To: not-an-ostrich
I'm not gonna go point by point on your theory, because it's wrong. It's not a communicable disease. Do a web search for pete's sake! This is not uncharted territory.
127 posted on 10/09/2001 1:54:30 AM PDT by Don Joe
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To: not-an-ostrich
some bacteria can create spores. Spores are surrounded by a crystalline shell that is very resistent to environmental changes. In fact, on Apollo 12, the crew retrieved a piece of a Surveyor lunar lander. Microbiologists were able to identify some bacterial spores on the lander (the spores went to the moon on the unmanned lunar lander and then took a ride home on the retrieved equipment on the Apollo flight). So spores are a remarkably strong way that the germ can survive.

Spores are not an active form of the germ. The spore has to germinate back into the bacteria. I'm not a bacteriologist so I can't tell you how long it takes for anthrax to convert. This rate of conversion is probably linked to the incubation time and the severity of illness.

If you're pretty strong and your exposure is limited, then you'll fight off the germ. But, I doubt anyone has been able to quantify this. To do so would require a human experiment and I doubt there are volunteers.

131 posted on 10/09/2001 1:58:20 AM PDT by bonesmccoy
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To: not-an-ostrich
I don't understand how anthrax can't be communicable. Bear with my logic, but say you have the spores or bacteria in your nasal passages and you sneeze. If the bacteria or spores are dislodged and sprayed by your sneeze are they no longer communicable because they have been in your nasal passage for hours/days? Do the spores become bacteria immediately upon inhalation and are at that point only deadly to host? The nasal swab on mailroom worker revealed anthrax "spores". This was some time after exposure. The spores had not yet evolved into the bacteria.

Your logic is fine, except for a couple elements you didn't keep into account: spore count (it takes several thousands to infect someone) and the tendency of spores to lodge into whatever they land on. Once lodged they're presumedly hard to dislodge in significant amounts, since they're so small that just about anything is "porous" at that scale. That's why anthrax aerosol is dangerous whereas one can be a woolworker for years and not catch anything. The above is my understanding after reading the CDC report, see this other thread for the links and more info.

134 posted on 10/09/2001 2:03:57 AM PDT by Roger_g
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