- Frantic laboratory work is underway in the US this
weekend,
as scientists try to find out how a 63-year-old man developed a rare form
of anthrax. The tests should reveal whether the bacteria were left by a
dead animal half a century ago, escaped from a laboratory - or even formed
part of a terrorist attack that might claim more victims.
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- The anthrax genome is among the least variable known.
Only a few US labs can tease apart subtle genetic variants, compare them
to strains from around the world, and say whether it is a strain common
in US livestock, used in US labs, or suspected of use in weapons
development.
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- A 63-year-old resident of Lantana, Florida, developed
headache and fever on Sunday while visiting Duke University in North
Carolina.
Doctors testing for meningitis in Florida found anthrax bacilli in his
spinal fluid.
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- An X-ray revealed an enlarged space under the breastbone.
This is unique to the pneumonic form of anthrax, which is almost invariably
fatal if antibiotic treatment begins after symptoms start. The US Centers
for Disease Control confirmed the diagnosis on Thursday.
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- "No one has any idea where this came from,"
says Martin Hugh-Jones of Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, head
of the World Health Organisation's working group on anthrax.
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- Lurking Spores
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- Anthrax is primarily a disease of animals. Humans get
it mainly from infected meat or wool. Bacteria from animal carcasses can
also lurk as spores in the soil for decades.
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- But animal anthrax has been eradicated east of the
Mississippi
River in the US. The last cases in Florida were in 1956. The Florida man
may have inhaled dust harbouring spores from a long-dead animal - or spores
that strayed accidentally from anthrax research labs at Duke. He could
also have inhaled them from imported wool.
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- But he is extremely unlucky. Most human anthrax cases
are skin infections. Of the 234 human cases in the US between 1955 and
1991, only eleven were pneumonic.
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- The fear is that the bacteria were deliberately released.
US health secretary Tommy Thompson said there was no evidence that such
an isolated case resulted from terrorism. But health authorities in the
US are on heightened alert in case there are more.
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- The Al-Qaeda group suspected of the 11 September
terrorist
attacks is allied to Iraq, and to Chechen rebels in the former Soviet
Union.
Iraq and the Soviet Union both developed anthrax weapons consisting of
aerosolised spores that would cause pneumonic disease. The group is also
known to be interested in bioweapons.
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