Posted on 10/25/2001 1:38:00 PM PDT by SAMWolf
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Genetic testing shows the bacteria in the anthrax-by-mail attacks have not been bioengineered and are quite similar to natural strains that sicken animals, federal health officials said Thursday.
"These strains cannot be distinguished from other anthrax isolates that are known to have caused disease in barnyard animals" in the United States and Europe, said Dr. Julie Gerberding of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While CDC says the anthrax so far is susceptible to penicillin, preliminary tests suggest it also may contain an early signal of developing penicillin resistance. Thus CDC said Thursday that patients with inhaled anthrax should not be treated with penicillin alone.
But from an investigative viewpoint, that discovery "is entirely consistent with the natural biology of the organism," Gerberding said. In nature, anthrax strains often show that chemical signal.
"We have absolutely no evidence to suggest these isolates have been genetically altered or engineered in any way," she added. "We're quite relieved that their susceptibility profile looks like what we would expect from a naturally occurring strain."
So far, the CDC hasn't finished genetic tests on anthrax spores recovered from the Washington postal facility where two workers have died and two others become infected with inhaled anthrax. Those tests are important to help determine whether the anthrax came from the same batch as the bacteria in letters mailed to Florida, New York and a Senate office.
Then there's the nation's other antibiotic resistance worry -- that some 10,000 people now are taking Cipro while CDC figures out whether they were exposed to anthrax and thus are at risk. All of that Cipro use, infectious disease specialists worry, could cause everyday bacteria to mutate so that Cipro won't be useful against other infections.
The CDC won't be able to detect if that's happening right away, Gerberding said, "but I would be surprised if it was a zero impact."
2. Drying the anthrax
3. Milling it to a small size so the victim will inhale it deep into the lungs.
4. Applying some anti-static additive so the anthrax will stay suspending in the air so more will be inhaled.
5. Genetically engineering the anthrax to make it resistant to antibiotics.
Iraq on the other hand was stopped short of step 5.
The terminology used by everyone is accurate, but they are all stopping short of drawing the obvious conclusion. (ahem...)
US Government White Paper on Iraq
How the Iraq bioweapons program came to light
LOL - yep.
Isn't this the same feral government whose FBI fired no shots at Waco, who has proven that TWA-800 crashed because of a center fuel tank problem, and who says that Oswald killed Kennedy with a decrepit Mannlicher-Carcano rifle?
Sure. I believe 'em.
< g >
I have enjoyed your posts today. Thank you for clarity on a couple of issues on which you have posted.
Flip a coin, as someone said. Today, the anthrax is garden variety. But come midnight, it will revert to its 'weaponized' form. Perhaps it shares genes with the pumpkin from Cinderella.
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The bacillus itself was not bioengineered. However, the "powder" could only have been prepared by a highly sophisticated national biowarfare infrastructure. This is true for thre reasons: the fact that the anthrax bacillus in the powder was in "spore" form, the size of the powder grains, and the fact that the powder grains had been specially treated with additives so that they would electrostatically repell each other. There are only three countries known to have the requisite technology: the USA, the old Soviet Union, and Iraq.
The "Ames" strain used in these attacks is not known to be used by Iraq. However, Iraq could have made a "special batch" using the "Ames" strain instead of the "Vollum" strain (for use by terrorists).
Yeah, the making of powders is so darn high tech. heh heh
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