ANTHRAX--The facts not bull shit. (Sources: the web sites of the Center for Disease Control; Web Med; and the Miami Herald Oct 13th)
If you are afraid of Anthras infection, please read on for the facts:
(1) Fundamentally Anthrax is a disease of cloven hoofed animals (cows, sheep, goats, deer etc.) In occurs in humans ONLY thru exposure to infected animals or their tissue. Spores may remain viable for decades but human infection from bacteria that has settled to the ground is minimal to almost non-existent. IT IS NEVER TRANSMITTED DIRECTLY FROM HUMAN TO HUMAN.
(2) There are three forms of human anthrax infection: a) skin, b) gastrointestinal, and c) lung.
a) Anthrax skin infection is by far the most common (usually among workers in slaughter houses) and occurs ONLY when a skin lesion allows entry of the anthrax bacteria. It begins as an itchy blister or pimple that becomes an open painless ulcer, and in time the sore will develop a black scab. It is relatively easy to treat, and with treatment the death rate is less than 1%. Without treatment the death rate is about 20%.
b) Gastrointestinal anthrax is extremely rare in the US and is contracted ONLY by eating undercooked infected meat. There does not appear to be any real threat of anthrax polluted meat in the US, and ever if there were, such problem would be easily defused by eating meat well done.
c) Anthrax infection of the lung is also very rare. Known as the ‘wool gathers disease’ it is almost unknown outside of a small circle of those who handle wool and wool skins from parts of the world notorious for cattle and sheep anthrax infection (which interestingly includes Pakistan and other eastern and middle eastern countries).
Anthrax lung infection usually occurs only to those who have had massive exposure over long periods of time. Strangely even among those so overwhelmingly exposed, some individuals seem resistant if not immune. This anomaly causes some scientists to believe that pulmonary anthrax only occurs in lungs already weakened or damaged by smoking or other injury). Whatever the anecdotal evidence, it has been fairly conclusively demonstrated as scientific fact that to be infected by lung Anthrax, a person must inhale a massive dose, somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 spores. Pulmonary Anthrax can be very deadly, and is always fatal without early diagnosis and treatment. Still, the only US case of actual infection in the last twenty five years is the employee of the Inquirer who died a few days ago. (The other two cases in Fla had spores in their noses but probably didn’t have the disease)
(4) Are the recent discoveries of Anthrax spores in the US evidence of a purposeful biological attack?
Could be, but just as easily might not be. That the known instances all seem related mail delivery seems suspicious, but as any scientist can tell you, coincidences occur all the time and they are sometimes very misleading. Perhaps it only seems that the mail rooms of news services are involved because that is where we are looking. Perhaps Anthrax spores have been out there in our soil and environment for years, but our cattle industry is so well run and inspected that we don’t have enough exposure to infected animals to even recognize whatever few cases we may have had from time to time.
If it is a purposeful attack, is it by the Islamic terrorists now in the news, or by the ‘Waco Whackos’ of the Oklahoma Federal building bomb, or maybe just an isolated home grown nut like the Unibomber?
The facts are nobody has sure and certain answers to any of these quesions. I have found one guiding principle for separating truth from fiction, however. Whatever the media and newspapers speculate and predict from football to the stock market to the budget deficit (or surplus), is almost always wrong. Don’t let the 6 o’clock news scare you to death. THEY DON’T KNOW!
And as far as being afraid of Anthrax is concerned, people die every day by the thousands in accidents, automobile and otherwise, of cancer, of heart disease, and of hundreds of other things. The odds are astronomically overwhelming that you will die of one of these ‘natural causes’ (or even be the victim of a murder), rather than anthrax, and that remains true even if we are under biological attack.
Life is a crap shoot folks. I personally have always taken great comfort in what my doctor told me in cardiac intensive care where I was recovering from a heart attack: “Congratulations my boy, you aren’t going to die of cancer.”
If you are afraid of Anthras infection, please read on for the facts:
(1) Fundamentally Anthrax is a disease of cloven hoofed animals (cows, sheep, goats, deer etc.) In occurs in humans ONLY thru exposure to infected animals or their tissue. Spores may remain viable for decades but human infection from bacteria that has settled to the ground is minimal to almost non-existent. IT IS NEVER TRANSMITTED DIRECTLY FROM HUMAN TO HUMAN.
(2) There are three forms of human anthrax infection: a) skin, b) gastrointestinal, and c) lung.
a) Anthrax skin infection is by far the most common (usually among workers in slaughter houses) and occurs ONLY when a skin lesion allows entry of the anthrax bacteria. It begins as an itchy blister or pimple that becomes an open painless ulcer, and in time the sore will develop a black scab. It is relatively easy to treat, and with treatment the death rate is less than 1%. Without treatment the death rate is about 20%.
b) Gastrointestinal anthrax is extremely rare in the US and is contracted ONLY by eating undercooked infected meat. There does not appear to be any real threat of anthrax polluted meat in the US, and ever if there were, such problem would be easily defused by eating meat well done.
c) Anthrax infection of the lung is also very rare. Known as the ‘wool gathers disease’ it is almost unknown outside of a small circle of those who handle wool and wool skins from parts of the world notorious for cattle and sheep anthrax infection (which interestingly includes Pakistan and other eastern and middle eastern countries).
Anthrax lung infection usually occurs only to those who have had massive exposure over long periods of time. Strangely even among those so overwhelmingly exposed, some individuals seem resistant if not immune. This anomaly causes some scientists to believe that pulmonary anthrax only occurs in lungs already weakened or damaged by smoking or other injury). Whatever the anecdotal evidence, it has been fairly conclusively demonstrated as scientific fact that to be infected by lung Anthrax, a person must inhale a massive dose, somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 spores. Pulmonary Anthrax can be very deadly, and is always fatal without early diagnosis and treatment. Still, the only US case of actual infection in the last twenty five years is the employee of the Inquirer who died a few days ago. (The other two cases in Fla had spores in their noses but probably didn’t have the disease)
(4) Are the recent discoveries of Anthrax spores in the US evidence of a purposeful biological attack?
Could be, but just as easily might not be. That the known instances all seem related mail delivery seems suspicious, but as any scientist can tell you, coincidences occur all the time and they are sometimes very misleading. Perhaps it only seems that the mail rooms of news services are involved because that is where we are looking. Perhaps Anthrax spores have been out there in our soil and environment for years, but our cattle industry is so well run and inspected that we don’t have enough exposure to infected animals to even recognize whatever few cases we may have had from time to time.
If it is a purposeful attack, is it by the Islamic terrorists now in the news, or by the ‘Waco Whackos’ of the Oklahoma Federal building bomb, or maybe just an isolated home grown nut like the Unibomber?
The facts are nobody has sure and certain answers to any of these quesions. I have found one guiding principle for separating truth from fiction, however. Whatever the media and newspapers speculate and predict from football to the stock market to the budget deficit (or surplus), is almost always wrong. Don’t let the 6 o’clock news scare you to death. THEY DON’T KNOW!
And as far as being afraid of Anthrax is concerned, people die every day by the thousands in accidents, automobile and otherwise, of cancer, of heart disease, and of hundreds of other things. The odds are astronomically overwhelming that you will die of one of these ‘natural causes’ (or even be the victim of a murder), rather than anthrax, and that remains true even if we are under biological attack.
Life is a crap shoot folks. I personally have always taken great comfort in what my doctor told me in cardiac intensive care where I was recovering from a heart attack: “Congratulations my boy, you aren’t going to die of cancer.”
