- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A
mailroom employee opens an envelope and something that looks like talcum
powder falls out. A powder spilled on the floor at the State Department
clears the area. A man sprays a liquid on the Metro in Washington,
D.C.
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- Such events are clearly unsettling in the wake of the
World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks and following the death of a man
in Florida last week from inhaled anthrax.
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- But experts say powders or liquids can be easily tested
to tell if they carry anthrax or some other biological agent, and quick
action can prevent people from becoming infected.
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- "I think the key thing is to stay calm," Mike
Osterholm, an expert in bioterrorism who has been warning for years of
the danger to the United States, said on Friday.
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- A trained technician can look at a powder under a
microscope
to see if the distinctive anthrax spores are there. Such a check can be
done in hours at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta
or in state health department labs.
-
- The spores can be cultured and grown to confirm the
finding
in a few days, and then tested against antibiotics to make sure the strain
responds to drugs.
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- Meanwhile, anyone exposed to the spores can take
antibiotics
to prevent an infection from ever happening.
-
- On Friday, the CDC said a woman who worked at NBC News
in New York was exposed to anthrax, apparently after handling a letter.
Everyone who worked on the same floor was taking antibiotics as
a precaution, CDC officials said.
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- 'NO NEED TO PANIC'
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- "Even if someone has been exposed to a powder, there
is no need to panic or fear," said Osterholm, who is doing advanced
work on bioterrorism at the University of Minnesota. "They can be
put on drugs and that'll do it."
-
- That is, unless the anthrax used was a genetically
engineered
form made to resist antibiotics. None of the anthrax cases reported has
been classified as a drug-resistant strain.
-
- After The New York Times said its veteran Middle East
reporter and co-author of "Germs: Biological Weapons and America's
Secret War," Judith Miller, opened a suspicious envelope containing
powder, media companies, including Reuters, warned employees to be careful
about opening mail.
-
- Experts said that was a good policy for the time
being.
-
- "What I would do is put the letter on my desk, walk
out of the room, close the door and call the police," advised Dr.
Martin Blaser, a professor of medicine at New York University.
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- "I would not show it to other people, I would not
take it from room to room, I would not take a lot of deep
breaths."
-
- Blaser added that such a person's co-workers would have
little to fear. "The good news is that even as a powder (anthrax)
is not that infectious," he said. "In Florida they tested
hundreds
of people, only three of whom tested positive. As a weapon it is not that
great."
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- It may just be time to let the mail stack up, said Dr.
Matthew Meselson, director of the Harvard University Program on Chemical
and Biological Weapons.
-
- "You don't need to have your mail today,"
Meselson
said in a telephone interview. "Put it in a box and let it sit there
until we know more, unless it is from someone you know."
-
- Someone who does open a letter and sees powder should
wash it off.
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- "Get some nice detergent and go in the shower and
take a shower -- better yet get in the tub, because the shower makes
spray,"
Meselson said.
-
- And experts pointed out that literally hundreds of
anthrax
scares over the past decade have turned out to be hoaxes. "Scares
are easy," Blaser said.
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