Anthrax and Other Terrorist Threats

Bio-terrorism is the use of biologic agents (germs, basically) to spread disease to innocent people. There may be terrorists still on the loose in this country, who have the money and the desire to spread terrible infections like anthrax and small pox to unsuspecting American citizens.

What can we do to protect ourselves from these attacks?

It would be very difficult to find and destroy all the laboratories around the world where these germs could be produced in mass quantities. That would of course be a prime goal of our government and military efforts, but one that could not ever be completely accomplished.

That being the case, we are going to have to learn to deal with biologic attacks on a local level. We are going to have learn what germs are being used, how to treat these infections, and how to produce vaccines to prevent infection in the first place.

Recognition of the disease is key!

Another important part of protecting ourselves involves the early recognition of these diseases, so that we can prevent the spread to others. In the case of anthrax, it is not contagious, but early recognition has allowed us to clean up the dangerous spores from the post offices and other areas where others could get exposed.

In the case of small pox, infected children and adults will pass the disease to most people they come in contact with. Early recognition is a great help here, because the vaccine is effective even 2-3 days after you have been exposed. So if you were educated about what small pox looks like, you could get vaccinated right away. You would save your own life and prevent spreading the disease to others.

Several other bio-weapons lead to infections that can be treated with antibiotics, including anthrax, plague, brucellosis, Q fever and tularemia. Early recognition would be of great help there as well.

The bad news is that most of these diseases have similar non-specific symptoms, that might look just like a case of flu. Cultures and other blood tests by hospitals can detect when these germs are present in the community. When a terrorist attack is discovered this way, all "flu" illnesses in that community will have to be checked for that germ.

The skin form of anthrax infection looks like a bad case of impetigo, which erodes the skin and forms a black scab. Any severe skin infections should be evaluated by your doctor, and treated as soon as possible.

Small Pox, the Greatest Threat

In the case of small pox, the rash will be the major clue. It looks like a very bad case of chicken pox, with more and larger pox on the face, arms and legs, and not as many on the trunk. Up to 70% of children with small pox die from it, and there is no safe and effective antibiotic. An anti-viral agent, cidofovir, might help but has not yet been tried in children.

Getting everyone vaccinated for chicken pox is our best defense against small pox!

If there are many cases of chicken pox in the community, that will make detection of small pox much more difficult. That is one reason it is very important right now to get your children vaccinated against chicken pox. It is not necessary if they have already had chicken pox. It would be even better if you would check with all your children’s friends to see if they too are vaccinated. If we can eliminate chicken pox from our communities, it will make the job of detecting small pox much easier!

It might be a year or two until small pox vaccine can be made available to everyone. Many adults have been vaccinated for small pox several years ago, but the vaccine only lasts for 10 years, so they are no longer protected.

Anthrax, the Current Menace

Anthrax is the only bio-weapon in use as of this writing. The lung infection begins like an average case of pneumonia, but can suddenly become very severe and completely destroy the lungs, resulting in death in about 80% of patients.

Several different antibiotics can be used to treat it, but, as with other germs, the overuse of antibiotics in the general population will lead to antibiotic resistance, and the antibiotics that we currently have will no longer be effective against anthrax. See the Health-byte about antibiotic resistance!

Note:    All those of you who are using antibiotics to treat colds, sore throats (not strep), bronchitis, and other virus infections (where antibiotics do no good anyhow!) are just helping the terrorists wipe us out faster!

Please do your part by reading the health-bytes on bacterial resistance and the post-antibiotic era! And get your friends to read them too, after making sure that they have vaccinated their children against chicken pox!