Posted on: Friday, October 5, 2001
Florida man contracts anthrax
Associated Press
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A 63-year-old Florida man lay near death yesterday with an extremely rare and lethal form of anthrax. U.S. officials said there was no evidence of terrorism but promised "a very intense investigation."
"There's no need for people to fear they are at risk," said Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. He and others emphasized that the disease is not contagious and that there is no evidence of other people infected.
But he said a deliberate release of the germ by terrorists is one of several possibilities under investigation.
Bob Stevens, photo editor of the supermarket tabloid The Sun, was hospitalized Tuesday with what was diagnosed as inhalation anthrax and was reported to be gravely ill. The Lantana, Fla., man's identity was released by the tabloid's publishing company.
Anthrax has been developed by some countries as a possible biological weapon. But the disease can be contracted naturally, often from livestock or soil. Officials said the Florida man is an avid outdoorsman.
The most recent previous U.S. case of anthrax was earlier this year in Texas. But that was the more common skin form, not inhalation anthrax, an especially lethal form in which the disease settles in the lungs.
"We will develop a very intense investigation of this case," Koplan said. "We are in a period of heightened risk and concern in this country. It's our responsibility to make sure people know what is going on and we control it as quickly as possible."
CDC investigators were dispatched to both Florida and North Carolina, since Stevens was said to have visited Duke University in Durham, N.C., about a week ago. The FBI is also investigating.
The CDC already has canvassed hospitals and health departments in those states and found no one else with similar symptoms, the CDC chief said.
"There's no person-to-person spread of this disease. Individuals in contact with this sick person wouldn't have caught it from him," Koplan said. "There is no evidence of other cases within the communities this gentleman has been in."
Symptoms of inhalation anthrax usually start within seven days of breathing in the bacterial spores. Dr. Steve Wiersma, a Florida Health Department epidemiologist, said authorities are certain the man contracted the disease in Florida.
Koplan said the patient has no digestive ills that would indicate the anthrax came from drinking contaminated water, and no skin symptoms from direct contact with the germ. But as for the possibility that he got anthrax from deliberately contaminated air, Koplan said: "We are aggressively investigating this case."
At a news conference at the White House, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson declared: "This is an isolated case and it's not contagious." He, too, said there was no evidence the case resulted from bioterrorism.
Fears that terrorists may have been planning an airborne chemical or biological attack were raised last month when it learned that a group of Middle Eastern men — including one of the hijackers in the attack on the World Trade Center — had asked a lot of questions about a crop-duster at an airfield in Belle Glade, which is about 40 miles inland from Lantana.
Because of those fears, the government grounded all crop-dusters across the country for a few days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
During the 20th century, only 18 cases of inhaled anthrax were reported in the United States, the most recent in 1976.
In North Carolina, Debbie Crane, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Human Service, said: "Anthrax occurred before Sept. 11. And it will occur in the future. The presence of a case of anthrax does not necessarily mean that some evildoer has done something horrible."
Koplan said the disease may actually be more common but goes undetected. The latest case may have come to attention only because of heightened concern about its use as a possible weapon of mass destruction, he said.
"What might have been tossed off as an undetermined bacterium was sent on to a state lab, where people recently received training in detecting anthrax," he said. "It is a possible answer, which is an improved detection system."
Anthrax causes pneumonia, and patients are treated with antibiotics. There is also a vaccine to prevent of the disease, but it is available only to the military now.
Dr. Larry Bush, an infectious-disease specialist at JFK Medical Center in Atlantis, said the patient there was on a ventilator. "He's critically ill. Hopefully he'll respond to treatment," Bush said.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that President Bush has been notified of the case. Fleischer said Health and Human Services has been working on plans for years in case of an outbreak, and "a series of protections have been put into place."
