Fayetteville Hotel Employees, Guests Being Tested For Anthrax Exposure

WXII ^ | 11/02/01

[dhfnc]

FAYETTEVILLE, NC -- Twenty employees and guests of the StudioPlus Deluxe Studios are being tested for exposure to anthrax after a sealed container found at the hotel tested positive for the bacteria.

[dhfnc]

I'm new to this - if I have not done this correctly, please let me know

[dirtboy]

Welcome to FR. Ya did fine. There is an existing thread about the container being found, but this is a new development to the story.

[austingirl]

You did just fine. Very disturbing news.

[dirtboy]

Here's the link to that thread:

Container Found In Fayetteville Tests Positive For Anthrax

[Oldeconomybuyer]

See earlier post:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/562465/posts

[dhfnc]

Thanks - yes it is very upsetting - I live in Winston-Salem - it seems to get closer and closer

[JennysCool]

StudioPlus Deluxe Studios

Operated by the Firesign Theater's Department of Redundancy Department, perhaps?

[honway]

Around 9:30 a.m. Friday, a hotel employee found a sealed plastic container about the size of a soda can in a rest room, officials say. The employee thought it was suspicious, contacted his manager, and they called for emergency response.

Haz-mat teams and firefighters did an initial test on the container and that test came back invalid due to an error. Then, they did two more screenings and both of those tests came back positive for anthrax.

Initial field tests are not 100 percent accurate. In fact, officials say a positive test is only 20-30 percent accurate.

[dhfnc]

thank you - Should I have posted it to the original post and not started a new one?

[honway]

Welcome. Good work.

[dirtboy]

Should I have posted it to the original post and not started a new one?

You could do it either way. We just try to avoid dupe posts of the same topic and especially the same story from the same source.

[cgbg]

new to this

So far so good. But...you now have to stay up all night to keep us up to date on further developments in this story. ;-)

[porte des morts]

Another case that does not in any way tie into the USPS or letters in any way.Very curious......

Must be one heck of a stockpile those rightwing militias have.

Hope someone clues the feds in to who might be another group, in sympathy with the terrorists, and with access to anthrax.....

[dhfnc]

What concerns me is that Fayetteville NC is a Military town - I hope it did not start at the base.

[buickmackane]

Welcome aboard, dhfnc!

This story is especially distressing because I am a hotel manager. Who knows where else these people stayed?

[6ppc]

Bozos?

[Larousse2]

I lived in Fayeteville many years ago. I would think that Bragg military would all receive vaccinations before the rest of the population.

[snopercod]

Welcome and thanks. I'm over here in WNC, near Asheville.

I'm as worried as anyone else over Anthrax, but let's consider what this "tests positive" actually means.

According to this JAMA: Anthrax as a Biological Weapon,

Rapid diagnostic tests for diagnosing anthrax, such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for protective antigen and polymerase chain reaction, are available only at national reference laboratories.

[snip]

Routine laboratory procedures customarily identify a Bacillus species from a blood culture approximately 24 hours after growth, but most laboratories do not further identify Bacillus species unless specifically requested to do so. In the United States, the isolation of Bacillus species most often represents growth of Bacillus cereus. The laboratory and clinician must determine whether its isolation represents specimen contamination.49 There have been no B anthracis bloodstream infections reported for more than 20 years. However, given the possibility of anthrax being used as a weapon and the importance of early diagnosis, it would be prudent for laboratory procedures to be modified so that B anthracis is excluded after identification of a Bacillus species bacteremia.

What I am trying to say here is that it is not simple to do a "real-time test" for Anthrax which is reliable. Any comments?

[dhfnc]

I would think that Bragg military would all receive vaccinations before the rest of the population. I would think so too - I certainly hope so! I really hope this turns out to be a false reading.

[dhfnc]

Thanks for the info!
I hope it will turn out to be nothing - alot are, so I'm just crossing my figures this will be!