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Anthrax: Florida Investigation Continues as Officials Calm Public The anthrax strain involved in the Florida episodes is likely to be man-made (see GSN, Oct.9), according to the FBI, since it does not match any known naturally occurring strain (Ananova/London Guardian, Oct. 10). Using data from an Arizona repository, federal investigators said they were able to match characteristics of the strain taken from the deceased Florida man to a strain that had been harvested at an Iowa facility in the 1950s (Sydney Morning Herald, Oct. 10). No further signs of anthrax have been found in the American Media Inc. office where the two Florida men worked and there have been no signs of additional cases, health officials said. A love letter to singer Jennifer Lopez that had been mailed to AMI and had been reported to include a “soapy, white powder” was ruled out as a possible anthrax source, according to FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela (Amanda Riddle, Associated Press, Oct. 9). Terrorists might have chosen AMI as a target because of its name, which is similar to American Airlines, company executives said today. They also fear that consumers will not buy their newspapers because of concerns they may be tainted with anthrax (Canedy/Altman, New York Times, Oct. 10). A possible third anthrax infection in Virginia turned out to be a false alarm after tests on the patient did not show the presence of anthrax bacteria, Prince William Hospital doctors said yesterday (Wolffe/Kirchgaessner, Financial Times, Oct. 10). The case had worried the hospital because the patient said he had worked in a Virginia building owned by AMI. “That’s what triggered our attention, was the connection with AMI,” said Robert Strobe, Virginia state epidemiologist. By 2 a.m. yesterday, tests had showed no signs of anthrax, Strobe said. The results of another set of tests to see if the bacterium will grow in a culture are expected tomorrow. “If the culture comes back negative, then we’ll stop treatment,” said Thomas Ryan, medical director of the emergency department at Prince William Hospital (Lisa Rein, Washington Post, Oct. 10). Global Exposure Anthrax infects about 5,000 people a year worldwide, according to Martin Hugh-Jones, a member of the World Health Organization’s Anthrax Research and Control Working Group. About 95 percent of the cases involve infection through the skin after a person handles an infected animal or animal product, according to Hugh-Jones. A small number of cases involve the eating of infected meat. Inhaling the spores, which is almost always fatal and is believed to be the means by which the two Florida men were exposed, is very rare, according to Hugh-Jones. The last reported case of pulmonary anthrax in the United States was over 25 years ago, according to the Wall Street Journal. Between 700 and 1,000 people die each year from anthrax (Gautam Naik, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 10). Obtaining anthrax, for a potential biological warfare attack for example, is not difficult, according to experts. There are more than 1,500 facilities that maintain microbe strains, including deadly ones such as anthrax, for researchers. The World Federation for Culture Collections, an organization of such facilities, has 472 members in 61 countries. Forty-six offer anthrax strains free or in exchange for other microbes, according to the New York Times. In the United States there have been efforts to tighten access to pathogens from germ bank facilities. American Type Culture Collection, the largest U.S. germ bank, has not shipped any pathogens that could be used as a weapon since 1997, said Raymond Cypees, the company’s president (William Broad, New York Times, Oct. 10). It may be easy for terrorists to obtain deadly diseases, but using them as weapons is much more difficult, according to terrorism experts. “An attack of the type down in Florida could probably have been pulled off by a single individual. It was very low-tech, very small scale,” said Jonathan Tucker, a Center for Nonproliferation Studies bioterrorism expert. “If you’re talking about a mass casualty event capable of inflicting casualties on the scale of Sept. 11, that would require a high level of sophistication,” Tucker said. First a terrorist group would have to obtain samples of a disease such as anthrax and then cultivate large quantities, according to Jonathan Ban, a Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute analyst. Terrorists would then need to know how to disperse it effectively. Using a cropduster, as some had feared after earlier reports, would require detailed knowledge of weather and environmental conditions, as well as modifications to the sprayers, said Ban. Dispersing anthrax through a building’s ventilation system would take knowledge on airflow and engineering, Ban said, and would require grinding up the spores to precisely the right size so they can be inhaled into the lungs (Mittelstadt/Loftis, Dallas Morning News, Oct. 10). Scientists have played down the level of threat anthrax poses to the general public. “Man is fairly resistant to anthrax,” said Harry Smith, the chairman of the British Royal Society’s working group on biological weapons. Journalists have misused reports of monkey experiments that show 45 pounds of anthrax spread over Washington could kill 3 million people, according to Smith, adding that monkeys are much more susceptible than humans. “Unlike nuclear warfare, high explosives and chemical warfare, the biological weapon has never been shown to be effective in the field,” Smith said (Roger Highfield, London Telegraph, Oct. 10). Vaccine Still in Development BioPort Corp., the only domestic producer of anthrax vaccine, has been under contract to produce vaccine for the military but has been unable to ship the product for more than three years, according to the Associated Press. The delay partly results from being unable to meet Food and Drug Administration requirements on shipping. BioPort has failed FDA inspections in 1999 and 2000, mainly for packaging problems, according to the AP. Some have criticized the Defense Department’s exclusive contract with BioPort. “It’s very expensive to do this right. Nobody wanted to pay what it was worth,” said Tara O’ Toole, deputy director of Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies. BioPort officials said they have made the necessary changes to produce the vaccine and plan to submit the new information Monday to the FDA, which will have six months to review the information (Kathy Hoffman, Associated Press, Oct. 10). Other companies are trying to develop their own version of an anthrax vaccine in the meantime. Vaxin is working on a genetically engineered version that could be administered through a skin patch. Corixa Corporation, with a $3.5 million Pentagon grant, has been developing drugs to fight anthrax, along with other diseases, that could be given through an inhaler or nasal spray. University of Texas Health Center, Brooks Air Force Base and Southwest Foundation for Biomedical research scientists are studying salmonella for potential use in developing an oral vaccine. EluSys Technologies is developing an anthrax antidote soldiers could inject before combat. A Los Alamos National Laboratory biologist is working on “decoy molecules” that could fool anthrax into latching onto the decoy, giving the body’s immune system time to fight off the disease (Associated Press, Oct. 10).
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