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Anthrax: Third Case Discovered in Florida A third person in Florida yesterday was identified as having been exposed to anthrax, according to federal officials, who have formally begun a criminal investigation. The latest case is a 35-year-old woman who worked in the same building as the other two men who were exposed (see GSN, Oct. 10). The woman did not exhibit the flu-like symptoms associated with anthrax, however, traces of spores were found in her nasal cavity. “She is on antibiotics and we will be working very closely with her,” said Florida Health Secretary John Agwunobi (Canedy/Yardley, New York Times, Oct. 11). Ernesto Blanco, the second confirmed anthrax exposure case, was showing signs of improvement, his daughter-in-law said. “He is much better. The antibiotics have kicked in and worked magnificently,” Mary Orth said. “He hopes to be out of the hospital in approximately a week” (Agence France Presse, Oct. 10). Now a Criminal Investigation The discovery of a third anthrax exposure case has changed the investigation into a criminal one, said U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis (Miami Herald, Oct. 11). The strain of anthrax found in Florida has responded to antibiotics, leading officials to believe it originated in a research lab and is not a biological weapon. Investigators may have traced the Florida strain to one developed in an Iowa laboratory in the 1950s dubbed the “Ames strain,” which was shipped to researchers around the world as a benchmark for identifying other anthrax strains. The “Ames strain” is so widespread, confirming it was the same as the Florida strain would tell little about where it may have come from, said Ronald Atlas, president-elect of the American Society for Microbiology (Slevin/Blum, Washington Post, Oct. 11). Some scientists familiar with the investigation said the DNA of the Florida strain was not an exact match to any strain, including the Ames strain, kept in most complete anthrax collections. “The Florida isolate is similar to an isolate from Haiti, to one from Texas and one from Iowa,” said Martin Hugh-Jones of Louisiana State University, who is advising investigators on how to identify the Florida strain (Canedy/Yardley, New York Times). One tool investigators could use to learn more about the Florida strain is a database at the Los Alamos National Laboratory that contains genetic information on 1,200 strains of the anthrax bacterium. Each strain has its own “signature,” a tiny piece of the gene that is unique, said Los Alamos spokeswoman Nancy Ambrosiano. “If it’s something in our database, we can identify it,” Ambrosiano said. “It would be a conclusive analysis” (Manning/Sternberg, USA Today, Oct. 11). Hysteria Leads to Efforts to Improve Medicine Supply The federal government recently shipped large amounts of anthrax medication, such as the antibiotic Cipro, from emergency stockpiles to pharmacists in South Florida because local supplies were dangerously low. South Florida has experienced signs of hysteria in the wake of the anthrax occurrences, the London Telegraph reported, such as the case of one man, who lived across the street from the second victim, calling local officials about a trail of white powder leading up to his front door. It wasn’t until after firemen and other emergency personnel had arrived, collected samples and hosed each other down that the family remembered a neighbor had spilled flour outside, according to the Telegraph (Ian Ball, London Telegraph, Oct. 11). The State Department has ordered U.S embassies around the world to stockpile anthrax medication, said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. “We don’t have any information to indicate that there’s an imminent threat from the use of anthrax or other biological agents at an overseas mission,” Boucher said. “But as a precaution we’ve encouraged our missions to stock a three-day supply of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin.” The supply is for U.S. employees and their families, as well as local workers, contractors and others who frequent the embassies, according to the State Department instructions (New York Times, Oct. 11). Bayer, the maker of Cipro, said yesterday that it planned to increase production of the drug to meet the new demand. Production of Cipro would increase by 25 percent starting Nov. 1. A German plant will be reopened to produce the drug, which had sales of about $1.6 billion last year (Dyer/Wassener, Financial Times, Oct. 11). Avant Immunotherapies announced yesterday a licensing agreement with DynPort Vaccine Company that will give DynPort access to Avant’s advanced vaccine patents. The vaccine technology could be used to combat anthrax, according to Mark Davis, a Stanford University medical professor and a member of Avant’s scientific advisory board. “They’re going great guns with travelers’ vaccines such as cholera and typhoid,” Davis said. “Anthrax would just be another bug” (Associated Press, Oct. 10).
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