Anthrax Hits Daschle Staffers - first full story

AP | Wednesday, October 17, 2001

[jwalsh07]

This is Russian, or Iraqi made Anthrax. Period.

Undoubtedly and it undoubtedly originated from Iraq. There time is coming.

[gulfcoast6]

If this is traced back to Say-Damn, no holds bared, nuke them to eternity. These jerks have pushed and pushed and pushed till it is no pushing anymore, and this includes the other arab nations over there as well. The last thing those folks want do is to get us mad and, united mad at that. They don't know what war is like untill they get us unleashed on them. Saudies? You had better have second thoughts about all this, and soon.

[jwalsh07]

They oughta take it. But they do act like clowns a lot of the time

Undoubtedly! :-}

[RBurke]

From what I understand (as a nurse), the first "field test" is just to check for the presence of anthrax bacilli at the scene.

Then the medical staff does a nasal swab to determine if spores are present in the nose. That takes about 3 days to get results.

At the same time a blood sample is drawn and they run a "culture" on it. That takes about 7 days to get a result--it is more precise than a nasal swab, since it shows if the person has developed antibodies to anthrax in the blood (which ONLY means they were exposed, but not neccessarily have the disease--either could be true).

Those blood cultures are precise--but since it may take some time for a persons body to develop the anitbodies, it has to be run again--in case it was too early the first time the blood was drawn. So you cant take the first blood results as a 100% definite, until its repeated more than once.

Then we have to remember that our labs arent used to dealing with this disease and any lab is capable of getting false negatives;If the testing done isnt 100% able to identify it (or) if the tech isnt paying close attention to protocol.

So in all of these situations, if I were exposed I would not feel safe until I had ;
1)nasal swabs done
2)blood cultures dont at least twice--with a period of time between both of them.
3)didnt manifest symptoms--since it seems some of the blood cultures which turn out positive in a repeated test, happen about the same time as people show symptoms of the disease.
4)I would ALWAYS take an antibiotic if I even suspected I may have been exposed--waiting for confirmation of blood cultures, is often waiting past the time period where the drugs would have a fighting chance to knock it out.

I would tend to be suspicious of ANY arabic person who presents themselves at a hospital with symptoms of pneumonia--since this is the most common misdiagnosis for inhaled anthrax.

I'm NO expert, just a nurse so this IMHO.

[cpdiii]

Most people do not realize there are multiple other drugs in the same class as Cipro that will treat Anthrax. They may not have the indication for it (meaning the company never applied for indication due to the expense and the fact it would only rarely be used for this indication). Our supply of effective antibiotics that will treat the disease is therefore actually much greater than the supply of Cipro. In addition it may also be treated with Doxycycline if the strain has not been made intentionallly resistant to that drug, (weaponized military grade selectively bred to be resistant to Doxycycline). This is not that difficult to achieve. You simply add doxycyline to the culture to the point that most of the colonies are dead. The remaining colonies have some resistance to the drug. You then use these colonies for your next culture and keep repeating the process until a very resistant strain is developed.

I have not read any information on strains that are resistant to the quinolones such as Ciprofloxacin, Levafloxacin, etc etc. Unless attacked with weapons grade anthrax on a large scale with a sophisticated delivery system (something I do not think the terrorist have the capability of doing) our country has a more than ample supply of drugs that will kill the beast.

Charlie the Pharmacist

[jwalsh07]

They can seal off the capital, keep the mail away, lay in some Cipro and do what they get paid to do. The guys on the ground in Afghanistan are not going home for the weekend.

[jwalsh07]

Excellent post Charlie the Pharmacist and timely, the winds of panic are wafting through the republic.

[princess leah]

I think one good nuclear bomb over Bagdad ought to stop Saddam Hussein from making chemical weapons and then drop the 2nd bomb over the multi-caves area of Ashcanistan. It's time for fear to turn tail and go the other way!

[Savage Beast]

Yeah I know. "Hope springs eternal..."....or something like that. ...oh never mind.

[VA40]

"The thought of this whiney, spineless Clymer as vice president"


Did you have to remind us of that so early in the morning?

[angry elephant]

DON'T SNIFF YOUR MAIL!

Why do you think 20 Daschle staffers would sniff one envelope?

[Savage Beast]

I know what you mean. The terrorists seem to be shooting themselves in the foot.

[spindoctor]

There's a greater probability that the perps will be brought to justice than there is of Daschel abandoning his lib policies. But you can always hope for both.

[Hoboken]

From the above AP story: Hundreds of people were tested Tuesday after the suspicious letter was opened in Daschle's office Monday. Nasal swabs were used on the staffers to see if there were any anthrax spores in their noses. A positive finding does not mean the person has the disease or will get the disease.

If you have seen anywhere that these staffers actually have cotracted the disease, please site your source. Thanks.

[Sabertooth]

"Now there's a thought! What if they start lacing cigarettes?"

Fresh produce would be easier. Intestinal anthrax.

[unending thunder]

Congress to adjourn until capital decontaminated Oh, gosh! How do we keep it contaminated, then? (:-)

I would have thought that by removing the Congressman you have ipso facto de-contaminated it.

My question from UK, knowing little of Congressional politics, why Daschle? Now if it had been Condit....

[chantal7]

It's kind of ironic. If someone had asked which people would be most helpful to the Islamic extremists, because they would do what they could to undermine Bush and the war effort, it's exactly the people who have been attacked with anthrax: The chief leader and planner for the Democrats, and the liberal presstitutes. The only target they seem to have missed so far is Christiane Amanpour and CNN. I suppose even Bin Ladin is aware that they are among his best friends.

Listen, I've lived over there..street level with them. #1, They would have contempt for the liberal/communists in our government, mainstream press and in our country. They would buddy up to them as a necessary evil but then strike them first because mainly the left in our country is immoral, very immoral in their eyes and weak, malable.

They would hold them in severe disrespect yet use them but now the terrorists are going for broke. They'll try to get rid of our immoral people because they hold them in such disrespect and contempt. I don't know for sure if or when bloody bill will be hit but it probably won't be too long because traitor bill is not only immoral and violates how they think people and leaders should live, but they would despise him because he was a weak leader and a weak man. They won't care if traitor bill still has some value to help them. I think that traitor bill, daschale, and the other liberal/communists need to be very very careful but once the terrorists start to really fall, once bin laden falls and the tide turns, the rest, even saddam (if still alive and not nuked like he should be) will lick their boots and try to keep them alive to cry on their shoulders, to try to preserve their own lives and power.

BUSH, you reward the attacks against Americans and the WMD attacks by openly saying that you support a country for palestinians. You have betrayed Americans because of your stance. You can't reward those who have murdered us and will continue to murder us in the future through WMD and conventional means.

These people (the terrorists, those that supported them) will only respect you if you show them strength. You are a moral man, they won't attack you for the same reasons they will the democrats, clintons, media. Showing strength is the only thing that will save us now. Track down the anthrax and as per our national policy, nuke the country and people that support it's use on America.

AND you have to tell them, "No way in H*ll will you support palestine as long as the terrorists, their threat to Americans, their attacks on America, her friends and allies are allowed to continue or continue or are capable of continuing in the form they've taken lately. These latest terrorists must all be killed if we want peace for any length of time. This includes saddam, iranians, iraqis, syrians, any and all who support and gave support to terrorists. Terrorism CAN NOT be rewarded in any way, shape or form." Though I must say Iran is certainly coming around publically. I still think the majority of their people are our friends. Hmm, I wonder if the moderates are threatening the clerics and militants' overthrow and it's scaring those still in control.

What Rudy did was right, in returning the check to Sheik Talal, according to Western thinking and standards. But to our moderate friends in the Middle East, what Rudy did was very rude. They don't completely understand how we think nor do we, how they think. To most Arabs, they let their people do as they wish when not in their country. They drink, party, date Western girls, etc. but the one rule they have about that is that they shouldn't flaunt it, it shouldn't be excessively overt. I believe a Sheik Adnan (Dodi Al Fayed's uncle) lost his government position over such actions becomming public knowledge..in his own country. He was too public, too celebrity.

Think of the difference in thinking between men and women..."Men come from Mars, women come from Venus" kind of thinking. The difference between Muslim/Arab thinking and the West is on a similar tract.

And the truth is, Sheik Talal didn't and hasn't said anything that Bush and Blair, et al, aren't saying right now, yet Sheik Talal was publically humilated for saying it. IMHO, Bush and Blair shouldn't even be saying it.

[Savage Beast]

I'm not panicky, and I don't know anyone who is. If we have to "storm the beaches at Normandy" again, we will. I don't want to. But I can and will. God is with us.

[Darnright]

>Why not is because there is a limited supply.

Not to mention the fact that indiscriminate use of antibiotics leads to bacterial resistance. There are some antibiotics that are virtually useless today because doctors have prescribed them for years, to people who had viral (not sensitive to antibiotics) infections.

[Diogenesis]

Interesting point.

Penicillin is cidal and destroys anthrax, whereas the tetracyclines do not kill it, only slow it.