Anthrax: Scientists Re-evaluate Risk of Cross-Contamination

USA Today ^ | 10/31/2001 | By Anita Manning

[Lady GOP]

Until Monday, the scientific community believed no one could be infected with anthrax by receiving a cross-contaminated letter at home. Now that possibility is "being intensively investigated," says Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. A 61-year-old woman who works in the supply room of the Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital has mysteriously developed inhalation anthrax, health officials announced late Monday. Meanwhile, another woman, who lives near the Hamilton, N.J., mail center where traces of anthrax have been found, is recovering from the cutaneous, or skin form, of anthrax.

[Lady GOP]

FYI

[MizSterious]

I keep wondering if maybe it didn't come from a letter in the first place. Who were her friends, who were her neighbors? Could someone nearby have been cooking up a batch of it and managed to contaminate this lady? I don't see why it has to have come in the mail.

[Lady GOP]

Heard a couple of possibilities, anthrax could have been released in the hospital or that she handled a cross contaminated letter. So where do you get those disposable rubber gloves..?

[Lady GOP]

There was a show on television about a place called Anthrax Island off the coast of Scotland. It was a place used to test Anthrax 40-50 years ago. It was uninhabited except animals such as sheep. Anthraxwas left there and then they went back to check. Every animal on the island was dead. They tried soil replacement etc. but nothing worked. They couldnt get rid of the anthrax.

[agrace]

Fox News today said that the Daschle letter had 20 billion (2 grams) spores. Hard to believe they contained most or all of it, if it was in fact airborne. Interesting article.

[MizSterious]

This was the inhaled type--had it just been on her hands, she would not have likely died from it. No, she breathed this from somewhere, and if it came from a letter, it would have been addressed to her personally. Did one of the terrorists maybe know her personally? Unlikely, but possible. It just seems to me that some other scenario would be far more likely--such as someone close to her--either someone she knows, or someone who lives nearby--cooking up a batch of this. My first guess--did she recently move into an apartment vacated by a terrorist? Or did she by any chance help someone else move in? Something along those lines.

[Gimlet]

So very many unknowns here. I just wish we had some leadership that told us the truth - which of course may be that they just don't have much of a clue about any of this. These unspecified warnings we keep getting do nothing except fray nerves. We deinitely have a leadership vacuum here. I keep getting the feeling that they are deinitely not tellin us the truth even though I believe that the truth might be a relief.

[RLK]

If the stuff wasn't dangerous as hell, a lot more dangerous than has been presented by the amateurs who have jumped in to make asinine pronouncements, why the hell do you think it would have been developed as a war agent?

[Lady GOP]

Apparently these spores can live for some time. Interestingly there was a comparison on television showing baby powder being put in an envelope. You can see it under a flourescent light. You could see how much powder escaped from the envelope. The powder is much thicker than the anthrax which was very finely milled. Pretty scary really.

[copycat]

I just wish we had some leadership that told us the truth - which of course may be that they just don't have much of a clue about any of this...I keep getting the feeling that they are deinitely not tellin us the truth even though I believe that the truth might be a relief.

It is becoming increasingly clear that CDC and the leadership structure do not really know what is, or will happen. FReepers should not be reying on Fedgov to save them, instead they should rely on themselves.

This requires responding to the worst case scenario until proven wrong.

As for me, I am assuming, based on the NYC case, that the mail was a diversion and that other Anthrax spores are being released from tall buildings, etc. I am assuming that very soon, people will start contracting the disease in all corners of the country.

[Bill Rice]

The 2 grams they cite was probably what was laid out in lines from when the Daschle staffers were deciding if it was a short 8-ball.

[_Jim]

So very many unknowns here. I just wish we had some leadership that told us the truth

Geez ... this article SPELLED it out pretty clear and another poster did a pretty good job at explaining what was possible with a full-scale intentional 'attack' -

- just WHAT is it that you want to hear from those in charge?

*Please* tell us - we would ALL like to hear what it is you have in mind ...

[Lady GOP]

Am equally concerned about a nuclear attack on a city such as NYC or DC. Another attack on NYC would be the end for that city. Our borders are also vulnerable to something smuggled into the counry via tractor trailers heading cross country etc. Yesterday it was the dirty nuke being smuggled in through Mexico and today a mystery case in which a woman is dead from inhalation anthrax. High aniety news.

[Lady GOP]

hi dennis.

[copycat]

Lady, if they continue to drip out the info one drop at a time, we will have to conclude that we still don't know the half of it.

As for dirty nukes, remember, Mohammed Atta went to the doctor seeking a cream to treat the burns on his hands.

[Lady GOP]

As for dirty nukes, remember, Mohammed Atta went to the doctor seeking a cream to treat the burns on his hands.

Hi copycat, actually believe Mohammed et al had a part in the anthrax attacks in the FLA. (first attack) They were looking for cropdusters and his associates lived miles within the first anthrax case. He probably did in fact receive a vial of the stuff from Iraqi agents.

But 1 person is not doing all this stuff now..this is a team of people many of whom are still unknown to our government.

[dennisw]

Their goal is to contaminate our US Postal Service. They are getting a lot of bang for their buck. They is Al-Queda and Saddam Hussein.

[ableChair]

My background is physics, so I will preface this with the disclaimer that I am not fully qualified to speak about biological warfare...but
I did some calculations regarding spore counts and cross-contamination and desperately emailed various talking heads (like O'Reilly) and received no response. This was several weeks ago.
What I found was that, given what is already publicly known about the effectiveness of these attacks, it is at least physically possible (and quite likely) that hundreds if not thousands of anthrax spores, in hundreds of mail 'samples', have already reached the general public. What's troubling is that the number of spores is just enough, but not too much, to make it a borderline possibility for infection (I'm still not sure how many spores, at minimum, are needed for infection. Knowing that would help pin it down). I've asked some biologists I know to clarify some questions, but I'm not even sure if the answers are currently known. Among them:
1.) Is the incubation period proportional to the number of spores to which one is exposed?
2.) Can the incubation period be extended by gradual, incremental exposure to spores for which each exposure, by itself, is insufficient to cause infection?
3.) If chemically treated with silica or bentonite what is the probability, expressed as the number of spores from a given sample, that spores so well aerosolized can 're-attach' to standard envelope paper?

The most confusing part about this is that no one in government has asked this question already (or have they)? These realizations are elementary and should be obvious to any competent biologist or chemist.