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The fact’s about the bacteria Bacillus Anthracis

Anthrax is so dangerous because, it is:

Highly lethal

One of the easiest biological agents to manufacture

Relatively easy to develop as a weapon

Easily spread in the air over a large area

Easily stored and dangerous for a long period

Three types of Anthrax infection:

Cutaneous Anthrax - Primarily involving the skin, caused by contact with infected animals or contaminated animal products.

Gastrointestinal Anthrax - caused by eating of contaminated meat.

Inhalation Anthrax - caused by inhaling anthrax spores **MOST DEADLY - BIGGEST THREAT**

Incubation period - 1 to 6 days between exposure and symptoms.

Symptoms of inhalation anthrax include:

Viral-like aches & pains, Fever, malaise, fatigue, cough and mild chest discomfort followed by severe difficulty breathing

What these bacteria do:

The disease occurs when spores enter lungs, travel to the lymph nodes, change into a bacterial form, multiply, and produce toxins.

These toxins cause bleeding and destruction of structures in the middle of the chest (medical term: hemorrhagic necrotizing mediastinitis).

How doctors diagnose Anthrax:

Measuring specific antibodies late in the course of the disease

Isolating the bacteria from blood, other body fluids or skin lesions

Blood culture

Treatment:

Treatment is usually not effective after symptoms are present.

High dose antibiotic treatment after symptoms appear can lower the death rate from 99% to about 80%.

Above Navy person injected with the vaccine to prevent him from

being able to contract anthrax.  Swelling and mild symptoms may

last a month or longer.

Immunization
Currently, the anthrax vaccine is produced under contract to the Department of Defense, and only small quantities are made available as needed to civilians who are exposed to anthrax hazards in their work environment, such as veterinarians, lab workers and others. An attempt to immunize 2.5 million members of the military ended three years ago, but that policy is being reevaluated. If the manufacturer receives approval from the Federal Drug Administration, vaccine production will resume.

Anthrax threat as a weapon

The use of biological weapons is not new. Diseased cows and corpses were catapulted into enemy cities in medieval times. But in recent decades, there has been growing concern about the potential use of anthrax as a bio-terrorist weapon. Anthrax is cheap to produce in large quantities. A single plane carrying Anthrax flying over Washington D.C., on a calm night could produce 1 to 3 million fatalities. Many countries have biological weapons programs with virtually no safeguards against the transfer of weapons or the technology used to manufacture them to potential terrorist groups.

Letter sent containing Anthrax

Information

Center for disease control Web page http://www.cdc.gov

Food & Drug Administration Web page http://www.fda.gov/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/

United States department of Health and Human Services http://www.hhs.gov

Jordan

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