Last Updated

31 Jan 2003

Source: Wall Street Journal, December 13, 2001.

HEALTH

U.S. Seeks Foreign Help For Answers on Anthrax

By CHAD TERHUNE, Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

ATLANTA -- Faced with a lack of knowledge about how anthrax is disseminated and even how little is required to kill someone, U.S. health officials are turning to foreign government agencies, private research firms and universities for answers.

Canadian defense scientists, who have conducted some of the most definitive research to date on anthrax-tainted letters, plan to begin further tests next week on the "reaerosolization," or recirculation and spread, of anthrax spores. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is especially interested in the risk posed by anthrax letters as they travel through the mail system and after envelopes are opened.

Months before the recent attacks, Canadian research showed that opening an anthrax letter could instantly release millions of spores -- far above what is considered a lethal dose -- and that even an unopened envelope could pose a risk to mail handlers. A Canadian researcher e-mailed the study to a CDC official Oct. 4 when the first case of anthrax was reported in Florida, but the e-mail was never read, the CDC says.

Canadian scientists will recreate the opening of the anthrax-laced letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle inside an abandoned building previously slated for demolition. Questions to be investigated include, "How long does the reaerosolization last?," "What is the particle size?" and "How fast does the aerosol appear when you walk into the room?" according to Bill Kournikakis, head of the preventive-medicine group for chemical and biological defense for the Canadian Defence Research Establishment, a government body.

Until the recent attacks, it was thought anthrax spores settled and didn't recirculate in the air. But preliminary results from a test inside Sen. Daschle's contaminated office found a significant number of spores re-entered the air when three federal officials mimicked office activities for about an hour.

A Canadian test of the mail-sorting machine at the Washington, D.C., processing facility where two postal workers contracted fatal cases of inhalation anthrax showed that even though the machine had been partially cleaned, it still released spores into the air.

In addition to learning more about the spread of anthrax spores, CDC officials want to test different drug therapies for the disease. Bradley Perkins, a lead anthrax investigator for the CDC, said the CDC has received 220,000 doses of anthrax vaccine from the military that could be administered to "lab workers and other populations."

A CDC spokesman said the use of the vaccine remains under discussion. Some of the vaccine could go to laboratory workers and first responders, such as firefighters, and the rest could be stockpiled for use in a future anthrax attack. CDC officials have been exploring combining the vaccine with antibiotics during preventive treatment.

U.S. agencies, research firms and universities also plan to study numerous other issues. Among them: how many spores it takes to infect a human; what factors, such as age or previous disease, make a person more susceptible; what single drug or combination of drugs are most effective at treatment; what effect spore-particle size and powder characteristics have on infection; and what would happen under different "release scenarios" in a stadium or shopping mall.

The CDC plans to coordinate the anthrax research to avoid duplication of effort. But other government agencies, universities and private research firms will conduct many of the actual tests.