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To: The Great Satan
Antitoxin Proposal: Another Possible, Last-Ditch Way of Treating Anthrax

I see no reason why the method couldn't be mass-produced. The method is to inject the toxin in question into livestock like horses, and to extract the resulting antitoxin. This is the classical method of producing antitoxins, and it is the method still used for the botulin antitoxin that the CDC stockpiles. I see no reason why large quantities of the antitoxin could not be produced in this way. According to the linked story, China seems able to produce adequate quantities. I would imagine it might be possible today to buy large quantities of the antitoxin from China and/or Russia.

I wouldn't say the antitoxin is exactly safe for humans. The chief complication is serum sickness. But I think that a bad reaction is a whole lot better than dying. And the CDC finds the risk acceptable with its botulism antitoxin, which presents precisely the same risk of serum sickness.

For a graphic description of the effectiveness of anthrax antitoxin, read Ken Alibek's Biohazard. In the book, Alibek describes how one of his coworkers was dying of anthrax (cutaneous, but on his neck, so that the swelling was cutting off his breathing,) when he was saved by a timely administration of "antiserum."

70 posted on 04/07/2002 4:30:01 PM PDT by aristeides
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To: aristeides
I can only hope we can come up with something, and fast. It's not as if we haven't been trying to crack this for years already, however. The Army's anthrax vaccination program just restarted. Given how controversial the safety of that vaccine has been, I can't imagine the program would be going forward if a "magic bullet" for anthrax were close at hand.
71 posted on 04/07/2002 4:59:21 PM PDT by The Great Satan
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