Posted on 10/12/2001 3:45:33 AM PDT by Movemout
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - In light of the recent cases of anthrax in Florida, which have heightened fears of biological terrorism, Israel's Health Ministry is preparing medical professionals to deal with the possibility of an attack here.
Israel has been bracing itself for the possibility of retaliatory terrorist and military attacks since the U.S. declared its war on terrorism after the September 11 suicide plane bombings in New York, Washington and outside Pittsburgh.
Tens of thousands of Israelis have been updating their gas mask protection kits each day for the last month, in case of possible non-conventional warfare attacks. But the threat of bio-terrorism is new.
Dr. Yehuda Baruch, head of medical administration at the Ministry of Health, said that although the same agents may be used in biological warfare and biological terrorism, as with conventional terrorism there is no advance warning in the latter case.
"[In cases of biological warfare] if a missile is falling, then you can give immediate warning to the public and know within hours [whether it was in fact a biological weapon]," Baruch said.
"In bio-terrorism, you never know in advance," he added. "The first warning is the first patient."
Israel has been stockpiling antibiotics and antidotes and preparing for the possibility of biological warfare for several years, but has only made preparations against the threat of bio-terrorism for the past year, Baruch said.
"The Health Ministry is monitoring professional reports on the [anthrax] incidents and is in contact with the U.S. authorities," the Health Ministry said in a statement issued on Thursday.
Ministry spokesman Ido Hadari said that after September 11, no hypothetical terrorist scenario can be ruled out.
"We are preparing for two kinds of scenarios - from the air, [carried] in a rocket or missile and by crop dusting spray," he said.
But a third scenario may be even more frightening. If the substance were released secretly so that only a few people contracted it at a time, it would be much harder to trace. Initial anthrax symptoms appear like the flu, but can progress rapidly and kill within a few days.
Even though Israel has thousands of cases of flu each year, medical professionals are being instructed to check each one that seems suspicious for the possibility that it may in fact be anthrax.
Anthrax is the "ultimate" biological weapon, Hadari said. Its use doesn't require the sacrifice of a terrorist, as in the case of a suicide bomber, and there is little evidence leading to the source of the attack. The agent is also fairly easy to obtain.
"If you have a unique goal like killing Jews, it will be very simple," he said. "After September 11, we can't say this can't happen... [an] anthrax [attack] is something we should expect, because it is so simple to obtain."
Hadari's advice to Israelis in the event of an attack is to stay very calm and listen to the instructions given by the Health Ministry. He has proposed a plan to televise the aftermath of such an attack so that curious Israelis will stay glued to their televisions and so stay out of harm's way.
The last reported case of anthrax in Israel occurred in 1984. The victim then and in three previous cases had all contracted the bacteria from working with animals, and all recovered fully.
There are three types of anthrax, which can contaminate the victim by inhaling, ingesting or through the skin. Airborne anthrax is the most deadly, but it is not contagious from person to person.
The bacteria are found naturally in soil and the blood of animals, particularly sheep. But it can be manufactured in the laboratory. Hadari said anthrax is not kept in any lab in Israel.
Louis Pasteur, the famous French chemist, made the first vaccination against anthrax in 1881. At that time there was a danger of farmers becoming contaminated from their cattle.
I think it may just be a matter of time before they switch from bombs to anthrax dust!
You bet! While I don't want to turn into a "list nut" flagging everything under the Sun to the bump lists, I thought this one was something to keep in mind. Remember Saddam lobbing Scuds into Israel? What they get, we may receive.
The "mainstream press" is so lame I don't know whether to laugh or cry- first it was Anthrax Terror, then Smallpox Panic, now They Are Really Skeered of Nukular War! What a bunch of chickens!
We've been discussing, in one form or another, this stuff for a long, long time...
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